Sante De Sanctis’ contribution to the study of dreams I J o D R Sante De Sanctis’ contribution to the study of dreams between ‘800 and ‘900 century: The originality of the integrated method Chiara Bartolucci, Giovanni Pietro Lombardo, & Giorgia Morgese University of Rome “Sapienza”, Italy Summary. The article reviews and analyzes Sante De Sanctis’ - an illustrious psychologist, psychiatrist and founder of the discipline of psychology in Italy - research on dream. The analysis of his study of dreams demonstrates how De Sanctis was the only Italian scholar to have broadened the experimental paradigm of Wundtian psychology using an original pluralistic method integrated with a theoretical perspective based on the study of the psychophysical reality of individuals in their totality. De Sanctis’ scientific work on dreams, documented in important national and international articles and monographs published in the 18th and 19th century, appears to exemplify his modern conceptualization of clinical-differential psychological research. Keywords: History of Psychology, Psychology of Dream, Sante De Sanctis, Methods of Experimental Psychology, Gen- eral and Differential Psychology of Dreams 1. Introduction carried out in accordance with the original psychological canons before the appearance of the psychoanalytic model Sante De Sanctis (1862-1935), psychologist and psychia- (e.g., Foschi & Lombardo, 2008; Pigman, 2002). trist, is one of the most representative figures in Italian sci- For Sante De Sactis the first sources of inspiration for the entific psychology (Cimino & Lombardo, 2004; Lombardo scientific analysis of dreams came from the tradition initiated & Cicciola, 2006). De Sanctis is considered to be one of by Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) in Paris at Salpêtrière. the discipline’s founders and primary actors in the period The relevance assigned to research on dreams in France between the two world wars; he held an important role in is evident in the 1851 faculty search promoted by the De- the history of psychology in Italy due to his extensive pub- partment of Philosophy at the Academy of Moral and Po- lications and continuous institutional activity. The scientific litical Sciences that proposed a competition on the theory study of dream was probably the area that, more than any of sleep and dreams from a psychological perspective (see other, made it possible for De Sanctis to become interna- Hervey de Saint-Denys, 1867/1977; see Schwartz, 2000). tionally known due to his study of dreams in accordance The search reflects the gradual change in epistemological with the canons of modern scientific psychology (Lombardo perspective in the study of dreams that was taking place at & Foschi, 2008; Ferreri, 2008). that time (Schwartz, 2000). Between the 19th and 20th century the interpretation of Numerous contributions to the science of dreams were dreams gradually shifted from being based on mystical-reli- published during the following years, some of them directly gious theories to becoming the subject of “scientific” stud- discussing the theories proposed by participants of the com- ies conducted by physicians, intellectuals and philosophers. petition (e.g. Delboeuf, 1885/1993; Hervey de Saint-Denys, Carroy, Ohayon and Plas (2006) highlighted, in a review of 1867/1977; Macario, 1857/1978; Maury, 1861/1862). At that numerous scholars, the lengthy process of secularization of time, the introspective dream report was considered as a dreams that took place between the end of 19th century precious and valid testimony of what had been perceived, and beginning of the 20th century. The Freudian myth of felt, or thought by the dreamer. Researchers were studying psychoanalysis according to which psychoanalysis was the the phenomenological descriptive features of dreams rather first psychological study of dreams, while the pre-psycho- than their meaning for a particular dreamer, and various ex- analytic study of dreams was essentially interpreted as be- periments were designed to determine what independent ing somatic or medical, has also been critiqued as part of factors might influence the content of dreams (Schwartz, this review. It is only recently, however, that some historical 2000). works have brought light to the numerous studies on sleep Sleep and dreams in France was studied by two catego- ries of professionals and amateurs (Carroy, 2010). Among the first Philippe Chaslin (1857-1923), René Artigues (1853- Corresponding address: 1921), Jean-Martin Charcot and Pierre Janet (1859-1947) Chiara Bartolucci, Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psy- framed dreams within a diagnostic perspective (see Sau- chology, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, University of ssure, 1926). The famous neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot Rome “Sapienza”, Italy. and his studies tried to individuate a differential framework Email: [email protected] of dreams in a comparison of hysterics and epileptics. In the “Tuesday Lessons” (Leçons du mardi à la Salpêtrière Submitted for publication: June 2015 1887-1888, 1888-1889) the French neurologist insisted Accepted for publication: December 2015 that dreams in hysterics were characterized by terrifying 22 International Journal of Dream Research Volume 9, No. 1 (2016) Sante De Sanctis’ contribution to the study of dreams I J o D R zooscopic images and highlighted the similarities with the to dreams could be classified as: subjective or direct in- dreams of alcoholics. Pierre Janet’s studies confirmed this trospective methods (Maury, Hervey de Saint Denys); ob- peculiarity as well as the presence of persecutory dreams jective methods (Calkins, Mourly, Vold); eclectic methods and insomnia in hysterics. Janet did not carry out a system- (De Sanctis); and inquiry or questionnaires (Jatrow, Child, atic study dedicated to the topic, but addressed the ques- Heerwagen). In his 1911 work Vaschide, analyzing the vari- tion of dreams based on paralysis and fixed ideas in “L’etat ous methods used by his colleagues, attributed the merit of mental des hysteriques” (1894). Janet observed that the re- having used an “eclectic” method to De Sanctis by which ported content of dreams in hysterical patients was strongly Vaschide meant that several methodologies were used si- correlated with paralysis; one example was his patient Jus- multaneously. tine who woke up with one arm in a state of contraction after A first analysis of works by the authors cited above leads having dreamt. A second consideration was the recurrence to the classification of studies within two perspectives: one of dreams in patients: hysterics repeatedly had the same that emphasized the organic aspects and one that empha- dreams for several consecutive days. This supported the sized the more specifically mental aspects (Carroy, 2010). theory of fixation in hysteria. Various studies on sleep and dreams were also carried Carroy (2012) shows how, in the first half of the nineteenth out in Germany at the time. Many of the internationally rec- century, the psychology of dreaming that was emerging in ognized studies that were also cited by De Sanctis were pri- France was used to defend an advanced idea of psychol- marily based on psychophysiological techniques and tried ogy. In France the dream and the subconscious are placed to identity the process of sleep and dreams through the at the center of a general psychology rather than medical use, for example, of the sleep cycle. psychology (Carroy, 2012). Amongst Emil Kraepelin’s students, Friedrich Heerwagen Alfred Maury (1817-1892) was one of the first in France (1864-1941), a German physician, conducted various sta- to make systematic observations of his dreams using di- tistical studies on sleep that led to a publication in Wilhelm rect introspective method and he also used experimental Wundt’s (1832-1920) publication Philosophische Studien methodology in the study of dreams (Pigman, 2002; Car- (Heerwagen, 1889). The research was in general based on roy, 2010). The scholar, a supporter of the “in two” observa- the use of questionnaires, statistical techniques and the tion method, used the same olfactory stimulants on himself analysis of the sleep cycle. Heerwagen, together with Edu- to induce dream content (Maury, 1878). Maury’s method, ard Robert Michelson (1861-1944), continued the research based on the notion that the dreams have a somatic ori- on sleep and dreams at the University of Dorpat (Estonia) gin, is included amongst the physiological theories along using a primarily psychological and psychophysiological with Mary Whiton Calkins’ work (1863-1930) (Cimino & method (Weber & Burgmair, 2009). Lombardo, 2004). Maury was a “dreaming scientists” as As in France, the first psychophysiological studies in Ger- Hervey de Saint-Denys (1822-1892). Hervey de Saint-De- many that analyzed variations in sleep and dream in relation nys and Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) used Maury’s method to the physiological causes that impact the organism grad- and dedicated themselves to the systematic collection of ually left room for oniric theories that saw dreams as the their own dreams. Hervey de Saint-Denys transcribed his result of mental apparatus (cf. Cimino & Lombardo, 2004). dreams upon waken for about 1946 nights while Gabriel Heinrich Spitta, a philosopher and psychologist at Tubingen Tarde collected his dreams between 1870 and 1872; the (1849-1929) was one of the primary scholars in the German dreams were published in an unedited text published in school. Spitta adopted two of Maury’s techniques: the use 2009 by Carroy. Hervey de Saint-Denys, despite his affir- of a sleep diary and provoking or stimulating the sleeper. mation of the close correlation between sleep and dreams, Spitta gave great importance to the analysis of the neuro- declared that he did not want to focus on the physiologi- physiological processes and defined oniric phenomena as cal processes that occurred in the nervous system (Hervey being created by external stimuli as well as by internal cere- de Saint-Denys, 1867). Joseph Delboeuf (1831-1896) and bral activity, underlining the importance of intrapsychologi- Philippe Tissié’s (1852-1935) work was also in agreement cal factors in the formation of the dream.