Patrick McNamara, Ph.D.

Patrick McNamara, Ph.D., received his B.A. in Psychology, from Boston University. He was awarded the Ph.D., in Behavioral Neuroscience (Human Neuropsychology), also from Boston University. He did a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Aphasia Research Center, Boston VA Medical Center. He has over 15 years of experience working directly the problem of the nature and function of dreaming. His initial interest in dreams was on how dreams represented the self or the ego of the dreamer. The self in dreams often displays a striking lack of insight and stunning immorality and yet at the same time may reveal a penetrating intelligence and creativity. After grappling with the self in dreams Dr McNamara steadily increased his work on dreams and has now published over 30 scientific papers on dreams as well as several books. He has spent most of his career at the Boston VA and Boston University School of Medicine in the Neurology departments. He has also taught neuropsychology at various colleges and universities in the northeast. He has been the recipient of two grant awards from the National Institutes of Health, to study sleep and dreams.