EYE-MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING (EMDR) - A NEW KIND OF DREAMWORK

A recently developed psychotherapy procedure called eye movement desen sitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is described EMDR features focussin g on a traumatic memory while moving the eyes rapidly from side to sid e. This appears to lead to rapid integration of the memory, and elimin ation of associated symptomatology. EMDR's apparent similarity to drea ming and to therapeutic dreamwork is suggested as a possible key to un derstanding its underlying mechanism. An illustrative case example is presented.