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Deirdre Leigh Barrett, Ph.D.

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Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D. is a Past President of both the International Association for the Study of Dreams and the American Psychological Association’s Div. 30, The Society for Psychological Hypnosis. Dr. Barrett has written four books: Supernormal Stimuli, Waistland, The Committee of Sleep, and The Pregnant Man & Other Cases from a Hypnotherapist’s Couch. She is an editor of four additional books: The New Science of Dreaming, Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, The Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreams, and Trauma and Dreams. Dr. Barrett has published academic articles and chapters on health, hypnosis, and dreams, and evolutionary psychology.
She is Editor in Chief of the journal Dreaming: The Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams and a Consulting Editor for Imagination, Cognition, and Personality and The International Journal for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.
Dr. Barrett's commentary on psychological issues has been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN, Fox, PBS, The Discovery Channel, and the BBC. She has been interviewed for dream articles in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Life, Time, and Newsweek. Her own articles have appeared in Psychology Today and Scientific American Mind. Dr. Barrett has lectured at Esalen, the Smithsonian, and at universities around the world.
Dr. Barrett teaches 2 courses on dreaming at Harvard: an HMS one through the Cambridge Health Alliance, and an FAS course through the Freshman Seminar Program. Her current research focuses mostly on dreams and evolutionary psychology.

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  1. Barrett, Deirdre. Creative Dreams that Change Our Lives, In Dreams that Change Our Lives, R. Hoss & R. Gongloff (Eds) Chiron Publications, Ashville, NC. 2017.
  2. Barrett, Deirdre . Foreword in Sleep Monsters! C. Johnson & J. Campbell Eds. NY: Praeger Publishers. 2016.
  3. Barrett, Deirdre. Foreword in Lewis, L. & Krippner, S. (Eds.) Working with Dreams and PTSD Nightmares: 15 Approaches for Psychotherapists and Counselors NY: Praeger Publishers. 2016.
  4. Barrett, Deirdre . Hypnosis and Empathy: A Complex Relationship, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Volume 58, Issue 3 pp. 238-250 | DOI: 10.1080/00029157.2015.1102122. 2016.
  5. Barrett, Deirdre . Hypnosis: Statehood at Last. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. 2015; 57:456-458.
  6. Deirdre Barrett, Malcolm Grayson, Angela Oh, and Zach Sogolow . A Content Analysis of Dion McGregor’s Sleep Talking Episodes Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, Vol. 35 (1). DOI: 0276236615574495. 2015.
  7. Barrett, Deirdre. Dreams: Thinking in a Different Biochemical State In Dream Research: Contributions to Clinical Practice, Milton Kramer & Myron Glucksman (Eds.). 2015; p. 80-94.
  8. Barrett, Deirdre. Every Tribe’s Wise Man. in Stanley Krippner: Essays on His Contributions and Influence: a Life of Dreams, Myths, and Visions J A Davies & D B Pitchford, Eds. P. 178-180. 2015.
  9. Deirdre Barrett, Zach Sogolow, Angela Oh, Jasmine Panton, Malcolm Grayson, & Melanie Justiniano . Content of Dreams from WWII POWs. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, Vol 33, p. 293-204. 2013.
  10. Barrett, Deirdre. In: Kushida C.A. (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Sleep. . The Interpretation of Dreams. 2013; 1:129-131.
  11. Barrett, Deirdre McNamara, (Eds). Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreams: The Evolution, Function, Nature, and Mysteries of Slumber [2 volumes]. 2012.
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  12. Barrett, Deirdre. Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose. 2010.
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  13. Barrett Deirdre. Chapter: Hypnotic Dreams, in Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, (2 vol.): Barrett, D. L. (Ed.)Vol. 2: Psychotherapy research and applications, NY, NY: Praeger/Greenwood,. p. 97-122. 2010.
  14. Barrett, Deirdre. Chapter: Dissociaters, Fantasizers, and their Relation to Hypnotizability in Barrett, D. L. (Ed.) Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, (2 vol.): Vol. 1: History, theory and general research, NY, NY: Praeger/Greenwood, p. 15-36. 2010.
  15. Barrett, Deirdre. Hypnosis in Popular Media, Chpt in Barrett, D. L. (Ed.) Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, , (2 vol.): Vol. 1: History, theory and general research, NY, NY: Praeger/Greenwood, p. 77-96. 2010.
  16. Barrett, Deirdre. Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy [2 volumes]. 2009.
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  17. Barrett, Deirdre & McNamara, Patrick. The New Science of Dreaming [3 volumes]. 2007.
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  18. Barrett, Deirdre. Waistland: The (R)Evolutionary Science Behind Our Weight and Fitness Crisis. 2007.
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  19. Barrett D. Visions of hypnosis future. Am J Clin Hypn. 2007 Jan; 49(3):199-201. PMID: 17265975.
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  20. Barrett, Deirdre. Chapter: An Evolutionary Theory of Dreams and Problem-Solving in Barrett, D. L. & McNamara, P. (Eds.) The New Science of Dreaming, Volume III: Cultural and Theoretical Perspectives on Dreaming NY, NY: Praeger/Greenwood, p. 133-154. 2007.
  21. Barrett D. Hypnosis in film and television. Am J Clin Hypn. 2006 Jul; 49(1):13-30. PMID: 16889359.
    View in: PubMed
  22. J. P. Green, A. F. Barabasz, G. Montgomery, D. Barrett. Forging Ahead: The 2003 APA Division 30 Definition of Hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. 2005; 53(3):259-264.
  23. Barrett, D & Behbehani, J. . Chapter: Posttraumatic Nightmares in Kuwait Following the Iraqi Invasion Chapt. in S. Krippner & T. McIntyre, Eds. Psychological Effects of War on Civilians: An International Perspective (Psychological Dimensions to War and Peace), Baywood. p. 135-144. 2003.
  24. Barrett, Deirdre. Chapter: Dreams in Short-term Psychotherapy in Rosner, Rachel I.; Lyddon, William J.; Freeman, Arthur (Eds) Cognitive Therapy and Dreams. Springer Publishing Company, p.113-134. 2003.
  25. Barrett, Deirdre. Barrett, D. L. The “Royal Road” Becomes a Shrewd Shortcut: The Use of Dreams in Focused Treatment, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, Vol. 16, No 1. 2002.
  26. Barrett, Deirdre. The Committee of Sleep: How Artists, Scientists, and Athletes Use Their Dreams for Creative Problem Solving - and How You Can Too. 2001.
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  27. Barrett, Deirdre. The relation of dissociative states to sleep and dreaming. Chapt. in S. Krippner &S. Powers, Eds. Broken Images, Broken Selves: Dissociative Narratives in Clinical Practice, Brunner-Mazel, p. 216-229. 1999.
  28. Barrett, Deirdre. The Pregnant Man: Cases from a Hypnotherapist's Couch. 1998.
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  29. Barrett, Deirdre. Fantasizers and Dissociaters: Two types of High Hypnotizables, Two Imagery Styles. in R. Kuzendorf, N. Spanos, & B. Wallace (Eds.) Hypnosis and Imagination, NY: Baywood, p. 123-134. 1996.
  30. Barrett, Deirdre. Dreams in Multiple Personality. Chapt. in D. Barrett (Ed.) Trauma and Dreams. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 68-84. 1996.
  31. Barrett, Deirdre (Ed). Trauma and Dreams. 1996.
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  32. Barrett, Deirdre. Using Hypnosis to work with dreams. Self and Society: A Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 23, p. 25-28. 1996.
  33. Barrett, Deirdre. The Dream Character as a Prototype for the Multiple Personality "Alter". Dissociation, Vol. 8, March 1995, p. 61-68. 1995.
  34. Barrett, Deirdre. Dreams in Dissociative Disorders. Dreaming: J. of the Assoc. for the Study of Dreams, Vol 4, No. 3, p. 165-177. 1994.
  35. Barrett, Deirdre. Dreaming as a normal model for multiple personality disorder. Chapter in S. J. Lynn (Ed.) Dissociation: Clinical, theoretical and research Perspectives. NY: Guilford, 123-135. 1994.
  36. Barrett, Deirdre. The 'Committee of Sleep': A Study of Dream Incubation for Problem Solving. Dreaming: J. of the Assoc.for the Study of Dreams, 3, p. 115-123. 1993.
  37. Barrett, Deirdre. Fantasizers and Dissociaters: An Empirically based schema of two types of deep trance subjects. Psychological Reports, 71, p. 1011-1014. 1992.
  38. Barrett, Deirdre. Just how lucid are lucid dreams: an empirical study of their cognitive characteristics. Dreaming: The Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Vol 2., p. 221-228. 1992.
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  39. Barrett, D. L. and Loeffler, M. . The effect of depression on the manifest content of the dreams of college students. Psychological Reports, 70, p. 403-406. 1992.
  40. Barrett, Deirdre. An Empirical Study of The Relationship of Lucidity and Flying Dreams. Dreaming: the Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Vol 1, No. 2, p. 129-133. 1991.
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  41. Barrett, Deirdre. Through a glass darkly: the dead appear in dreams. OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying,. 1991; 24:97-108.
  42. Barrett, Deirdre. Deep Trance Subjects: A Schema of Two Distinct Subgroups. Chpt in R. Kunzendorf (Ed.) Imagery: Recent Developments, NY: Plenum Press, p. 101-112. . 1991.
  43. Barrett, D.L. and Fine, H. J. . The Gnostic Syndrome: Anorexia Nervosa. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Vol. 4, p. 245-252. 1990.
  44. Zamore, N. and Barrett, D. L. . Hypnotic susceptibility and dream characteristics. Psychiatric Journal of The University of Ottawa, Vol 14, p. 572-574. 1989.
  45. Barrett, Deirdre. Dreams of Death. OMEGA: the Journal of Death and Dying, Vol. 19, p. 95-102. 1988.
  46. Barrett, Deirdre. Trance-Related Pseudocyesis in a Male. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol. 36, p. 256-261. 1988.
  47. Dunn, K. K. and Barrett, D. L. Characteristics of Nightmare Subjects and their Nightmares. Psychiatric Journal of The University of Ottawa, Vol. 13, p. 91-93. 1988.
  48. Barrett, Deirdre. Early Recollections as Predictors of Self-Disclosure and Interpersonal Style. Journal of Individual Psychology, Vol. 39, p. 92-98. 1983.
  49. Barrett, Deirdre. Early Recollections of Anorexia Nervosa Patients as a Reflection of a Lifestyle. Journal of Individual Psychology, Vol. 37, p. 514. 1981.
  50. Barrett, Deirdre. Anorexia Nervosa: Appreciating the Metaphor While Halting the Starvation. Journal of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, Vol 17, p. 53-56. 1981.
  51. Barrett, D.L. & Fine, H.J. A Child was Being Beaten: The Therapy of Battered Children as Adults. Psychotherapy: Theory, Practice, and Research, Vol. 17, p. 285-293. 1980.
  52. Barrett, Deirdre. The First Memory as a Predictor of Personality Traits. Journal of Individual Psychology, Vol. 36, p. 136-149. 1980.
  53. Barrett, Deirdre. The Hypnotic Dream: Its Content in Comparison to Nocturnal Dreams and Waking Fantasy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 88, p. 584-591. 1979.
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