Robert Desoille, a French engineer, psychotherapist, and creator of the concept of the "directed daydream," was born on May 29, 1890, in Besançon, France, and died on October 10, 1966, in Paris. Born into a family of military officers, Desoille studied engineering as a young man. In 1923 E. Caslant initiated him into an experimental technique of mental imaging, which he felt had psychoanalytic applications. He worked out his theory over the course of seven volumes.

In Exploration de l'Affectivité Subconsciente par la Méthode du Rêve-éveillé [Exploration of subconscious emotions using directed daydreams] (1938), he studied the relationship between symbolism, invention, and memory, demonstrating the advantages of his method for exploring sublimation. He built on the work of Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Roland Dalbiez.

In Le Rêve-éveillé en Psychothérapie (The directed daydream...