2015/07/22 by Laurence Totelin · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #History of Medicine Studies
paper · doi:10.1093/shm/hkv080
openalex publication_date 2015/07/22 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
All humans dream. However, studying dreams in a historical way is far from easy, as individuals' dreams are rarely recorded, and the interpretation of dreams is culturally dependent. When one combines dreams with that other difficult historical topic—illness—one gets a particularly complex theme of study. In this collection, Steven M. Oberhelman has gathered together scholars working in a variety of fields in order to cast some light on the role of dreaming in healing in Greece from antiquity to the present. The collection opens with an introduction by Oberhelman, in which he uses Arthur Kleinmann's and David Gentilcore's models for understanding how various systems of healing coexist in a given society, and the mechanisms whereby patients choose their healers. In all those systems (popular, ecclesiastical, medical), dreams have an important role to play. Dreams can indicate a patient's health state; predict the future of their health; or suggest ways to cure their illnesses and ailments. Following this introduction, the collection is organised chronologically in three sections: antiquity, Byzantium and post-Byzantium.