Mark Blagrove
Use attributes for filter ! | |
Gender | Male |
---|---|
Affiliations | Swansea University |
Citations | 3,631 |
H index | 31 |
Education | Fitzwilliam College |
Interests | Sleep |
Dreaming | |
Date of Reg. | |
Date of Upd. | |
ID | 3823676 |
Mark Blagrove Life story
Mark Blagrove is a British research psychologist who specializes in the study of sleep and dreams. He is a professor of psychology at Swansea University in Wales, and is Director of the Swansea University Sleep Laboratory.
Dreams: Can a drawing help unravel their secrets?
By Neil PriorBBC News
For as long as I can Remember - at least once a week - I have experienced a recurring dream.
Not exactly A Nightmare , but nevertheless Something which has confused and troubled me.
I'm Something of a counselling cynic, but when I Heard about a sleep scientist and artist who had teamed up to try and interpret and explain our dreams, I was intrigued to see if they could get to the bottom of my concerns.
Prof Mark Blagrove interviews People about their dreams, and Dr Julia Lockheart, a renowned cartoonist and artist from Swansea Art College, sketches their discussions to provide greater insight into their meaning.
I Am now 44, but in my dream I Am 14 or 15 and transported back To My Boarding School for blind and visually impaired students in Worcester.
As it is 30 years hence, I Am utterly confused as to what lessons I should be attending and where my files and textbooks are.
Nevertheless I possess a superpower: I know everything that will happen in The Next 30 years.
To laughter, I try to explain To My classmates that by 2023 their Mobile phones will be several times more powerful than our entire school network.
I know who will win that year's FA Cup Final , who will win The General election and which horse will succeed in the Grand National .
I Am desperately trying to put bets on with a bookie or call my partner Sarah, who I did not meet until 2013.
However, everything on which I try to make a phone call is anything but a Mobile - a pocket calculator, a TV Remote Control … nothing can connect me to The Present day.
As Prof Blagrove explains I have fears about getting my ideas across to Other People - Something of a problem for a BBC feature Writer - Dr Lockheart creates an uncanny visual caricature. She had no previous knowledge of The School where I grew up.
Her pictures are drawn on pages of Freud's book The Interpretation of Dreams.
She explained: " The text has many linked words which are like The Surrealist idea of object trouvé, or found objects, which I make into found poetry. An example of this is in the pointing finger in your hand which is dialling numbers on the TV remote, held tightly in your other hand.
" The Sentence 'I was working principally on My Own ' is highlighted. It runs down the pointing digit which is punching the numbers in to make an impossible phone call.
" We have been given permission from the publishers of Freud for me to deface his writing and tear it out of The Book to create a piece of psychological art. "
Prof Blagrove said This Was where art becomes science.
" Julia's paintings bring our dreams to life.
" We know through our empirical research that People who share their dreams have more empathy with each other, and seeing a visual interpretation only facilitates that process. "
He added while there were many schools of thought about the nature and purpose of dreams, theirs was the only scientifically-proven research.
" There is a big body of consensus that dreaming has a biological function in terms of sorting and analysing thoughts from short-term to long-term memory.
" I don't necessarily disagree with that, but it's an unproven theory.
" What we can categorically Say - through double blind controlled experiments - is that People who share their dreams and have seen Julia's imagining of them have greater empathy for each other than People who have met for the First Time . "
Prof Blagrove argues that this sort of discussion of our dreams leads to better social cohesion.
Dr Lockheart concurred, saying sharing dreams through art was as old as Life Itself .
" From prehistoric cave art to Native Americans , there has been a Shamanistic connection with People sharing their dreams. "
Many of the dreams shared by Nhs Professionals during the pandemic followed my pattern.
Dr Lockheart said: " Especially during the early days, nurses were telling us that they knew what was to come, and how it would impact on humanity.
" It's a bit like your dream, insofar as they have information that no-one else does, but they're powerless to control The Situation .
" They described horribly disfigured trees, and even one when a cat was sat on their face smothering them. "
Prof Blagrove and Dr Lockheart have just released a book based on their seven-year research findings called The Science and Art of Dreaming.
They are about to undertake a European and American tour of their Dream Analysis , including a residency at the Hay Book Festival in May.
Related TopicsSource of news: bbc.com