Dreaming : Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams
Human Sciences Press, Inc., New York City

Volume 6, Number 2, June 1996


CONTENTS



A 10-Facet Model of Dreaming Applied to dream Practices of Sixteen Native American Cultural Groups.
Stanley Krippner and April Thompson
Page 71

Identifying Types of Impactful Dreams: A Replication.
Ria Busink and Don Kuiken
Page 97

Does Early-Night REM Dream Content Reliably Reflect Presleep State of Mind?
Francine Roussy, Claude Camirand, David Foulkes, Joseph De Koninck, Maleah Loftis, and Nancy H. Kerr
Page 121

Remembering and Communicating the Dream Experience: What Does a Complementary Morning Report Add to the Night Report?

Jacques Montangero, Pascale Pasche, and Pierre Willequet
Page 131

Outline for a Theory on the Nature and Functions of Dreaming
Ernest Hartmann
Page 147
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Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. and April Thompson, B.A.
A 10-Facet Model of Dreaming Applied to dream Practices of Sixteen Native American Cultural Groups.
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 6(2) 71-96, Jun 1996.

Abstract:

Using archival research methodology, 16 traditional Native American systems of dreamworking were compared with such modern systems as those developed by Freud, Jung, and Ullman. Within the structure of a model proposed by Ullman and Zimmerman, each of these native American systems was found to address the major topics subsumed in contemporary psychodynamic Western dream systems. Many approaches to working with dreams were used by Native Americans and some of them resemble Western dreamworking methods. 

Key words: dreams; dreaming; dream interpretation; Native Americans.


 

Ria Busink and Don Kuiken, Ph.D.
Identifying Types of Impactful Dreams: A Replication.
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 6(2) 97-119, Jun 1996.

Abstract:

In an attempt to replicate a classificatory study reported by Kuiken and Sikora (1993), thirty-six men and women reported a dream that was as impactful as their most impactful dream during the preceding month and then the first dream that they recalled at least four days later. Cluster analysis revealed five classes of dreams, each with a characteristic profile of emotions and feelings, goals and concerns, movement styles, sensory phenomena, self-reflectiveness, and dream endings. Four of these classes substantially correspond to the dream types identified in the original study: existential dreams (distressing dreams concerned with separation and personal integrity), anxiety dreams (frightening dreams concerned with threats to physical well-being), transcendent dreams (ecstatic dreams concerned with magical accomplishments), and mundane (unimpactful) dreams. A fifth class of moderately impactful dreams, new to this study and referred to as alienation dreams, expressed emotional agitation and concerns about interpersonal efficacy.

Key words: dreams; impactful dreams, emotion and dreams; self-reflectiveness


 

Francine Roussy, Claude Camirand, David Foulkes, Joseph De Koninck, Maleah Loftis, and Nancy H. Kerr
Does Early-Night REM Dream Content Reliably Reflect Presleep State of Mind?
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 6(2) 121-130, Jun 1996.

Abstract:

In a small-scale study, Rados and Cartwright (1982) found that presleep thought samples, but not postsleep-elicited significant concerns, could be matched with a night's REM dream content on a cross-participant basis. We collected either presleep thought samples or significant concerns for later blind judge matching with 8 participants' mentation reports from the night's first REM period over 8 nonconsecutive nights each. Although some persons' first-REM dreams were successfully identified by judges from presleep ideation, both vs. presleep ideation from the same person on other nights and vs. presleep ideation from other persons on the same night, there was no overall group pattern suggesting continuity of dream content with presleep ideation. We also did not replicate the claimed superiority of thought samples vis à vis significant concerns. Reliable content analysis showed a different proportional distribution of life experiences in waking and dream ideation.

Key words: dream content; continuity; presleep ideation



Jacques Montangero, Pascale Pasche, and Pierre Willequet
Remembering and Communicating the Dream Experience: What Does a Complementary Morning Report Add to the Night Report?
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 6(2) 131-145, Jun 1996.

Abstract:

This paper presents the data obtained when night dream reports, collected by waking subjects during REM sleep, are completed by a complementary morning interview. Our data collection technique aims at facilitating the storage of the dream experience in long-term memory, at assisting in the recall of this experience the next morning and at obtaining a maximum level of information which communicates the contents of the dream as completely as possible. The night and complementary morning reports of 15 subjects (one dream per subject) were analyzed by two judges. Each subject added an important amount of information in the morning interview: on the whole 622 new pieces of information, which contributed to eliminate ambiguities and substantially changed the way in which the experimenters visualized and understood the dream experience. The additional information did not make the contents of the dream more coherent and most of it (78%) could not have been deduced from the elements mentioned in the night report. Specific features of dream mentation also appeared in the additional morning information.

Key words: dreaming; dream reports; memory



Ernest Hartmann, M.D.
Outline for a Theory on the Nature and Functions of Dreaming
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 6(2) 147-170, Jun 1996.

Abstract:

Based on dreams after trauma and other recent research a view of the nature of dreaming is developed along the following lines. Dreaming makes connections more broadly than waking in the nets of the mind. Dreaming avoids the "central" rapid input-to-output portions of the net and the feed-forward mode of functioning; it makes connections in the further out regions (further from input/output) and in an auto-associative mode. Dreaming produces more generic and less specific imagery. Dreaming cross-connects. The connections are not made in a random fashion; they are guided by the emotion of the dreamer. Dreaming contextualizes a dominant emotion or emotional concern. This is demonstrated most clearly in dreams after trauma as the trauma resolves but can likewise be seen in dreams after stress, in pregnancy, and in other situations where the dominant emotional concern is known. The form that these connections and contextualizations take is explanatory metaphor. The dream, or the striking dream image, explains metaphorically the emotional state of the dreamer. This entire process is probably functional. The dream functions to spread out excitation or reduce "computational energy" and does this by cross-connecting and "weaving-in". This has an immediate function in "calming a storm" or reducing a disturbance, and a longer term function relating to memory – not so much consolidating memory but rather cross-connecting, weaving in something new, increasing the connections.

Key words: dreaming; dreams; Connectionist nets; psychotherapy; metaphor

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