Louis Breger
Encyclopedia
Louis Breger is an American psychologist, psychotherapist and scholar who was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California. He received his undergraduate education at Cornell University and U.C.L.A., following which he obtained his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at The Ohio State University in 1961. He is the father of three grown children and two stepsons, married to Barbara Gale Breger; together, they have 13 grandchildren.
Academic Positions
Breger has been Professor of Psychoanalytic Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division of the California Institute of Technology
, Pasadena, California, from 1970 to the present, (currently, Emeritus Professor). Prior to this, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California Medical School in San Francisco, and the University of Oregon. He graduated from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute in 1979, where he became a Training and Supervising Analyst and was the recipient of the Franz Alexander Essay Award and the Distinguished Teaching Award. In 1990, he resigned from that institution and, with a group of colleagues, created the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP) where he was the Founding President from 1990 to 1993. ICP reflected Breger’s commitment to an open, democratic form of education; it is a non-hierarchical training institute, not affiliated with the American Psychoanalytic Association.
Research and Scholarship
Breger has been both a practicing psychotherapist and a faculty member at several universities where he carried out research on dreams, reformulations of psychoanalytic theory, psychotherapy process and outcome, studies of personality development, the application of psychoanalysis to literature, and published two biographies of Sigmund Freud
. He has always taken a critical stance towards psychoanalysis, as revealed in most of his publications. His work on dreaming – using the REM techniques of monitoring sleep through the night – showed that dreams are symbolic attempts to master emotional conflicts that have been aroused during the pre-sleep period, in contrast to Freud’s wish fulfillment theory (see Function of Dreams, 1967). His work on personality development – as found in his book From Instinct to Identity – is an integration of theory and research from child development, John Bowlby
, Erik Erikson
, Harry Stack Sullivan
, Freud, Jean Piaget
, primate studies, and research on hunter-gatherer societies. The study of Doetoevsky treats him as a fellow “psychoanalyst” who has much to teach us rather than a patient to be “analyzed.” The two biographical studies of Freud bring out the personal – often traumatic – roots of what is valuable and problematic in psychoanalytic theory and therapy.
Bibliography
Books
Psychotherapy: Lives Intersecting (Transaction Publishers, 2012)
A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis
(Basic Books, 2009)
Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision (John Wiley & Sons, 2000)
Feodor Dostoevsky: The Author as Psychoanalyst (New York University Press, 1989, reissued by Transaction Publishers, 2009)
Freud’s Unfinished Journey: Conventional and Critical Perspectives in Psychoanalytic Theory (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981)
From Instinct to Identity: The Development of Personality (Prentice Hall, 1974, reissued by Transaction Publishers, 2009)
The Effect of Stress on Dreams (with I. Hunter and R. W. Lane) Psychological Issues, No. 27, (1971)
Clinical Cognitive Psychology: Models and Integrations (ed.) (Prentice Hall, 1969)
Selected Articles
Breger, L. & McGaugh, J. L. Critique and reformulation of ‘learning theory’ approaches to psychotherapy and neurosis. Psychological Bulletin 63, 338-358, (1965)
Breger, L. Function of Dreams. Journal of Abnormal Psychology Monograph 72, 1-28, (1967)
Breger, L. The manifest dream and its latent meaning. In J. Natterson (ed.) The Dream in Clinical Practice Aronson, 3-27, (1980)
Breger, L. Some metaphorical types met with in psychoanalytic theory. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought 4,107-140, (1981)
Website
http://www.adreamofundyingfame.com A Dream of Undying Fame
Academic Positions
Breger has been Professor of Psychoanalytic Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division of the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
, Pasadena, California, from 1970 to the present, (currently, Emeritus Professor). Prior to this, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California Medical School in San Francisco, and the University of Oregon. He graduated from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute in 1979, where he became a Training and Supervising Analyst and was the recipient of the Franz Alexander Essay Award and the Distinguished Teaching Award. In 1990, he resigned from that institution and, with a group of colleagues, created the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP) where he was the Founding President from 1990 to 1993. ICP reflected Breger’s commitment to an open, democratic form of education; it is a non-hierarchical training institute, not affiliated with the American Psychoanalytic Association.
Research and Scholarship
Breger has been both a practicing psychotherapist and a faculty member at several universities where he carried out research on dreams, reformulations of psychoanalytic theory, psychotherapy process and outcome, studies of personality development, the application of psychoanalysis to literature, and published two biographies of Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
. He has always taken a critical stance towards psychoanalysis, as revealed in most of his publications. His work on dreaming – using the REM techniques of monitoring sleep through the night – showed that dreams are symbolic attempts to master emotional conflicts that have been aroused during the pre-sleep period, in contrast to Freud’s wish fulfillment theory (see Function of Dreams, 1967). His work on personality development – as found in his book From Instinct to Identity – is an integration of theory and research from child development, John Bowlby
John Bowlby
Edward John Mostyn "John" Bowlby was a British psychologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory.- Family background :...
, Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T...
, Harry Stack Sullivan
Harry Stack Sullivan
Harry Stack Sullivan was a U.S. psychiatrist whose work in psychoanalysis was based on direct and verifiable observation .-Life and works:Sullivan was a child of Irish immigrants and allegedly grew up in an...
, Freud, Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget was a French-speaking Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology"....
, primate studies, and research on hunter-gatherer societies. The study of Doetoevsky treats him as a fellow “psychoanalyst” who has much to teach us rather than a patient to be “analyzed.” The two biographical studies of Freud bring out the personal – often traumatic – roots of what is valuable and problematic in psychoanalytic theory and therapy.
Bibliography
Books
Psychotherapy: Lives Intersecting (Transaction Publishers, 2012)
A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
(Basic Books, 2009)
Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision (John Wiley & Sons, 2000)
Feodor Dostoevsky: The Author as Psychoanalyst (New York University Press, 1989, reissued by Transaction Publishers, 2009)
Freud’s Unfinished Journey: Conventional and Critical Perspectives in Psychoanalytic Theory (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981)
From Instinct to Identity: The Development of Personality (Prentice Hall, 1974, reissued by Transaction Publishers, 2009)
The Effect of Stress on Dreams (with I. Hunter and R. W. Lane) Psychological Issues, No. 27, (1971)
Clinical Cognitive Psychology: Models and Integrations (ed.) (Prentice Hall, 1969)
Selected Articles
Breger, L. & McGaugh, J. L. Critique and reformulation of ‘learning theory’ approaches to psychotherapy and neurosis. Psychological Bulletin 63, 338-358, (1965)
Breger, L. Function of Dreams. Journal of Abnormal Psychology Monograph 72, 1-28, (1967)
Breger, L. The manifest dream and its latent meaning. In J. Natterson (ed.) The Dream in Clinical Practice Aronson, 3-27, (1980)
Breger, L. Some metaphorical types met with in psychoanalytic theory. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought 4,107-140, (1981)
Website
http://www.adreamofundyingfame.com A Dream of Undying Fame