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Discussion Groups: The American Psychoanalytic Association, May 1999 The American Psychoanalytic Association, December 1999
Dr. Mayer welcomed the group to the 4th meeting of this discussion group at the May, 1999 meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association. She then announced that Dr. Carol Gilligan, the co-chair, would not be able to attend the group due to a family emergency. Dr. Stuart Twemlow, who had agreed to fill in as co-chair, was then introduced. He opened the group with a description of his background with psychic phenomena, ESP, and telekinesis. Dr. Mayer began the discussion by sharing her thoughts on the implications of telepathic knowing and remote perception for the practice of psychoanalysis. Although many instances of such “knowing” are reported in the psychoanalytic literature, she explained, these are uniformly not explored clinically.
Dr. Mayer then summarized an unpublished paper, “Telepathic Dreams,” by Robert Stoller, which would serve as the basis for the group discussion. Dr. Stoller began collecting such dreams in 1960. The first experience for Stoller had to do with a dream he had which reflected his “knowing” about an accident which involved (his supervisor) Ralph Greenson's son. Once open to this concept, Stoller became impressed by the number of telepathic dreams reported by patients. After a number of years, Stoller “turned off” his interest, reacting in part to Greenson's advise to not publish his work. (Actually, Greenson, who ordinarily was quite opposed to the concept of telepathy, was, according to his family shaken by the dream and subsequently changed his views on telepathy.) Three years before his sudden death in 1991, Dr. Stoller decided further to pursue this work which he felt to