The African origin of familial consciousness and the dynamics of dreaming.

Abstract

African and African American traditions of dream work and dream interpretation have a long history interweaving with other traditions and have specific roots in the history of Africa itself. There are conceptions of the unconscious that parallel those of European traditions but in crucial ways are significantly different, particularly in the perception of personhood and psychological boundary permeability emerging in the dynamics of dreams and family life. These conceptions in many ways challenge traditional understandings of space and time but are also in keeping with the actual experience of dreaming itself and with certain quantum and relativistic conceptions of the relationships between space, time, energy, and, by implication, the range of consciousness itself. These are rooted in the African genesis of our species, both genetically and psychically, along with the shared reality of our neural inheritance. This article is a conceptual overview of this tradition, beginning with its cultural-historical roots to its clinical influence in practices today.