Os sonhos na terapia comportamental

Abstract

This article reviews the issue of dreams, from a behavioural approach, with the purpose of making a study of this subject, starting from its conceptualisation as concealed behaviour, right up to its use within the behavioural approach. The article deals with the aspect of dreams as concealed behaviour, something that happens inside everyone, and which only becomes known when described verbally. The use of dreams in behavioural therapy is emphasised as yet another way, within an overall process, of seeking information so that both the therapist and the client can, together, identify which predominant situations control the client's behaviour. It is suggested that by describing a dream verbally the client can express something that he/she has aversion to, or which would take longer to be elucidated if expressed in another way, so that the therapist is able to make good use of dreams to help the client to become increasingly familiar with and understand the situations that control his/her behaviour so that he/she can achieve an ever greater level of self awareness. Keywords: dreams, concealed behaviour, verbal description, behavioural therapy, self-awareness.

Keywords

• sonhos
• comportamento encoberto
• relato verbal
• terapia comportamental
• autoconhecimento