THE RUSSIAN SOCIETY OF RESEARCHERS OF DREAMS (RSRD)

On April, 15, 2014, the Russian Society of Researches of Dreams was founded. It is the first Russian institution that deals with researching dreams. It is created as a section of the non-commercial partnership institute «The National Society of Specialists on Children Sleep».

OVERALL VISION

The studies of dreams has the long history. The object of these studies is both intriguing and difficult for researching. Physiologists, psychologists, philosophers, theosophers, artists, writers, and just thoughtful dreamers, paid great attention to the subject at different stages of human history. They all tried to understand this mysterious area of our life. Under modern circumstances we can get back to these researches, and convey the studies of the lively and exciting process of dreaming.
First of all, in the middle of XIX century the discoveries in somnology allowed to discuss the biological (especially the brain)mechanisms of dreaming activity besides the dream content itself. 
Second, we got a quite complete perception of intensive psychic activity in sleep. It is clear that the activity is not an accidental epiphenomenon but one of the main underlying purposes of sleep. Each dream even if it is short, confused, and devoid of meaning tends to tell us about something that takes place inside of us. Now we have gotten hard evidence of the fact that dreams are not a senseless sequence of images released by our brain while resting but an active state that performs a number of important functions. 
Third, it is difficult to discuss dreams separately from the discourse of culture. Literature, art, music, cinema, TV affect human consciousness, and their «visual transmission» is getting more and more connected to dream images. Thus, the images represent a mixture of conscious and subconscious perception of both reality and information flow. It is of great concern from the point of view of researching the unique and complicated human personality.
Fourth, it is time to define scientific and methodological approaches to the studies of dreams. Now there are new ways of committing dreams to further mathematical and linguistic analysis.
Fifth, there are therapeutic aspects of the studies of dreams that are important for diagnostics and treatment. The results of researching dreams allow us to consider dreams as a reflection of some pathology either of the human body or human psyche. The results are valuable for diagnoses. Dreams are a kind of «transcript» of important personal distress. A specialist gets an opportunity both to «touch upon» a patient's problem, and to make the correct influence on it in order to solve the problem. It opens broad opportunities for the use of dreamwork in psychotherapy. 
Numerous attempts to investigate this mysterious subject took place in different areas of Natural sciences. However, all these researches are scattered. Till now there is neither common definition nor methodological approach to the studies of dreams. It is clear that dreams are an interdisciplinary subject, and their studies should unite specialists of different areas.
The goal of the RSRD is to organize the interaction of the specialists of these different areas of medicine, art, natural sciences, and humanities who are concerned in the theoretical and practical aspects of researching dreams.

MAIN OBJECTIVES:

1. Supporting RSRD members in researching psychic activity in sleep.
2. Development and implementation of innovative research projects in the field of the studies of dreams.

3. Promotion of professional development and training of specialists in researching psychic activity in sleep and dreamwork.

4. Attraction of Russian and foreign specialists and institutions to the joint research work in the field of the studies of dreams.

We invite both private parties and institutions concerned in the studies of dreams to join RSRD, and to make their contribution to our researches.