Ullman and the Evolution of Dream Appreciation Groups

     Dr. Montague Ullman, who was born and raised in New York, has had a combined career as a neurologist and a psychoanalytic psychiatrist. In the late 1930s, during Ullman’s early years as a psychiatrist, Freud’s theories on dreaming were gospel.

     Ullman, with his friend and co-author, Nan Zimmerman, collaborated on the book, Working with Dreams (1979), in which they introduced an explanation of their approach to dreamwork through an experiential dream group arrangement. In 1974, Ullman was invited to Sweden to teach psychodynamic psychotherapy. It was during this time period, while he was teaching his coursework on dreams to psychology students and professionals, that he further developed the concept of the experiential dream group. On his many subsequent trips to Sweden, he was invited by a number of hospitals, psychotherapy centers, and adult education programs to train them with his group approach. Through his many years of conducting dream groups, Ullman became convinced that dreamwork does not have to be exclusively the task of the psychotherapists and psychiatrists. Rather, he is certain that dreamwork could and should be shared with everyday people in their communities.

     Ullman explains, "I count myself among those who have broken more completely with the classical tradition. I view dreaming consciousness as a natural healing mechanism confronting us with information about the personal and social realities that shape our lives.”

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