Waking Dreams: Imagination in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life

by Allan Frater

In a waking dream, we inhabit the dreamworld with an awareness of doing so-as sometimes happens upon waking from sleep when a dream continues to feel present alongside an awareness of lying in bed. Taking perspectives from transpersonal psychology, ecotherapy, complexity theory, and fractal geometry, this book develops new possibilities within waking dream practice (also known as "active imagination" and "guided imagery") to - how the in-between waking/dreaming experience allows us to become aware of not just what we imagine but also the process of how we imagine-a process that reveals the principles and skills of image-based transformation and healing. - how a broad understanding of imagination-as present in all perceptions, actions, and relationships (not just as pictures "inside the mind")-allows for an image-centric approach to psychotherapy and everyday life as an ongoing "eyes-wide-open" waking dream. The result is an experiential and theoretical appreciation of imagination, not just as a means to rational insight but as a creative ability at the heart of human potential. If you are interested in cultivating a richer, story-filled, and enchanted existence, or you are a therapist wanting to help others do so, this might be the book you have been waiting for.

222 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2021

About the author

Hi, I'm Allan Frater - a psychotherapist in private practice and teacher at the Psychosynthesis Trust in London.

I'm originally from a wee village just outside Edinburgh. I survived an engineering degree and a failed career as a maths teacher by reading novels and watching movies. Inspired by Jack Kerouac and Herman Hesse, I spent my twenties living and working in Buddhist communities - which was where i came across transpersonal therapy and eventually trained to be a psychotherapist.

My book 'Waking Dreams' is a book on imagination with a difference. Instead of offering techniques to use imagination (as if imagination were a machine!?) or ideas to figure out and interpret what images mean (as if imagination were a complex puzzle!?) it focusses on the neglected question of how to live a more imaginative life, not just as a means to rational insight, but as an important creative ability in itself that takes us to heart of all healing and transformation.

Reviews

[David Martin]

Frater has to be one of the most compelling thinkers on the subject of imagination.
What makes this particular book so special is that he doesn't write about imagination from the outside as if peering at something separate or other - he invites the reader towards encountering it themselves, and that makes all the difference. The book is refreshingly structured in this way, providing an academic framework for the ideas presented laced through with a mini course of experiential exercises which the reader can immerse themselves in. I have to say that I have found a few of these guided exercises have been wonderfully strong medicine, easy to repeat, and I use some of them therapeutically with my clients to help them see through some limiting identifications. I enjoy Frater's writing style a lot which is refreshingly easy to read. Can recommend thoroughly.

[Gabriella Olivia]

Illuminating and beautifully written.