Don Kuiken
American psychologist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donald Kuiken is a Canadian psychologist and scholar known for his interdisciplinary research concerning dreaming, literary reading, aesthetics, and phenomenology. He is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta, Edmonton.[1] Kuiken pioneered methods that blend philosophical phenomenology with systematic empirical investigation, significantly influencing research on dreams, reader response, and experiential categories of consciousness.
Don Kuiken | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | University of Texas at Austin |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cognitive psychology, Oneirology, Aesthetics, Phenomenological psychology |
Education
Kuiken completed his undergraduate studies in psychology at the University of Iowa in 1965, earning a B.A.[2] He went on to pursue graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology in 1970. During his doctoral training, Kuiken was influenced by mentors such as Sigmund Koch and Michael Polanyi, who were critical of the prevailing neo-positivist approaches in psychology.[1]
Academic career
Kuiken joined the University of Alberta Department of Psychology in 1969, where he spent his entire academic career until becoming professor emeritus in 2017.[3] He held positions ranging from assistant professor to full professor and played a role in the department’s Centre for Advanced Study in Theoretical Psychology including as Director from 1987 to 1990.[4]
Research
Kuiken’s interdisciplinary research integrates phenomenological psychology with systematic empirical methods within two primary domains: dreaming and literary reading.[5] His work emphasizes how lived experiences whether in dreams or reading can lead to changes in self‑perception, expressive reflection, and metaphoric cognition.[6] To facilitate this work, he and collaborators developed numerically‑aided phenomenology, a methodological approach that combines qualitative sensitivity with systematic categorization of experiential narratives.[7]
Dreaming and impactful dreams
A central focus of Kuiken’s work has been impactful dreams, that influence thoughts and feelings after awakening.[8] He and colleagues empirically differentiated dream types, including nightmares, existential dreams, and transcendent dreams, showing how these can deepen self‑perception and affective insight.[9] His research has explored the role of physiological correlates, metaphoric processes, and self‑reflection in dream experience.[10] In recent years, Kuiken has published theoretical and empirical work on the metacognitive and metaphoric aspects of impactful dreams, including how such dreams produce sublime feeling through metaphoric transformation and expressive reflection.[11]
Literary reading and aesthetics
Kuiken also conducted influential research on literary reading, especially concerning how deeply engaged reading prompts changes in self‑understanding and feeling expression.[12] His collaborations with scholars like David Miall and Shelley Sikora yielded insights into reader response, expressive enactment, and the interplay between textual structure (e.g., foregrounding) and reader cognition. Work includes empirical studies of absorption, self‑implication, and emotional engagement during literary reading.[13]
Other works
Kuiken has served as Editor of Dreaming, the Journal of the International Association for the Study of Dreams[14], and as Associate Editor of Scientific Study of Literature. He has also served as president of the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature (IGEL). His professional activities include invited lectures and collaborations with international research centres, such as the Centre for Subjectivity Research at the University of Copenhagen and the Interacting Minds Centre at Aarhus University.[3]