Nightmares and the supernatural encounter
December 6, 2019 DOI: 10.4324/9780429432491-7 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Keywords | Psychoanalysis |
| Key points | Argues that medieval accounts of nocturnal assaults by supernatural beings can be interpreted as culturally shaped descriptions of sleep paralysis with REM hallucinations, and that authoritative interpretations of the nightmare were replicated, rejected, or interpolated across medieval literary discourse. |
Abstract
Nocturnal assaults by ghosts, revenants, and demons are a prominent feature in medieval writings on the supernatural. In modern sociological research, ‘nightmares’ – defined as sleep paralysis combined with REM hallucinations – are said to be a universal function of the human body, the symptoms of which are given meaning according to the mental schemas of the sufferer. The first part of the Chapterelaborates upon the benefits of using modern social-scientific data on the medical nightmare as an interpretive tool, before investigating how the ‘nocturnal assault’ was interpreted according to classical dream theories and the tenets of humoural medicine. According to Macrobius, the ‘common folk’ usually ascribed a supernatural causation to the nightmare experience. Such beliefs can be seen in the writings of Guibert of Nogent (c.1130) and William of Newburgh, amongst others. Exempla from these works will be used to frame an examination of ghost and demon encounters that appear to incorporate the symptoms of sleep paralysis into their narratological framework. With reference to a range of literary and historiographic sources, it will be seen how the authoritative interpretations of the nightmare were replicated, rejected, or interpolated within the various levels of medieval literary discourse.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dreaming: a conceptual framework for philosophy of mind and empirical research | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming | 2015 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Neurobiology of Consciousness: Lucid Dreaming Wakes Up | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |