Dreaming and Adaptation: The Perspective of Control-Mastery Theory

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the meaning and functions of dreams according to control-mastery theory (CMT), a cognitive-dynamic relational theory developed and empirically validated in the last 40 years by the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group (Gazzillo, 2016; Silberschatz, 2005; Weiss, 1993a; Weiss, Sampson, & the Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, 1986). CMT stresses how dreams reflect the person's efforts to adapt to reality; their production is regulated by a safety principle and is an expression of human unconscious higher adaptive functions. According to this model, dreams represent our unconscious attempts to find solutions to emotionally relevant problems. In dreams people think about their main concerns, particularly those concerns that they have been unable to solve by conscious thought alone, and they try to develop and test plans and policies for dealing with them. After having introduced the reader to the main concepts of CMT, we will illustrate the different facets of the CMT model of dreams with several clinical examples. Finally, we will describe the core elements of recently developed models of dream functions and meanings based on empirical research on sleep and dreams, and we will show their substantial compatibility with hypotheses proposed by CMT. 本文旨在根据控制-掌控理论(CMT)阐明梦的意义和功能,CMT是在过去四十年里由旧金山心理治疗研究小组(Gazzillo, 2016; Silberschatz, 2005; Weiss, 1993a; Weiss et al., 1986) 发展出来的一种认知-动力关系理论. CMT强调梦如何反映出一个人适应现实的努力;梦的制造是受到一个安全原则的制约,也是人的无意识的高级适应功能的表达. 根据这个模型,梦代表我们的无意识试图找到解决情感相关问题的方法. 在梦中,人们会考虑他们主要的关注点,尤其是那些他们无法仅靠意识思维来解决的问题,他们并会尝试发展和测试处理这些问题的计划方针. 在向读者介绍了CMT的主要概念之后,我们将举一些临床例子来说明不同方面的CMT的梦的模型. 最后,我们将描述一下最新开发出的梦的功能的模型的核心要素,以及基于对睡眠和梦的实证研究的意义,我们还将展示它们与CMT提出的假设具有实质的兼容性.