Kluwer Academic/Human Sciences Press, Inc., New York City

 Volume 10, Number 2, June 2000 
 

Monique Lortie-Lussier, Lucie Côté and Julie Vachon
The Consistency and Continuity Hypothesis Revisited  through the Dreams of Women at Two Periods of their Lives 
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 10(2) 67-76, Jun 2000.

Abstract:

The purpose of the present longitudinal study was to determine the extent of consistency in dream content at two periods of adulthood as well as continuity with the psychosocial development of the dreamers.  Twenty-one women kept a dream diary for a few weeks at intervals of 10, 15 or 17 years.  ANOVAs for repeated measures were performed on the mean frequencies per dreamer of different dream elements or ratios of these elements.  No significant changes were found.  Pearson moment correlations yielded high and significant internal consistency for friendly and aggressive interactions.  None of the others were significant.  Ratios and indices calculated on subclasses of characters, settings, interactions and emotions revealed significant deviations from female norms, at one or the other of the phases.  These different findings are discussed within the theoretical perspective of continuity with developmental stages in women’s lives.  

Key Words: dream content; longitudinal; consistency; continuity; women.

Available online

Francine Roussy, Manon Brunette, Pierre Mercier, Isabelle Gonthier, Jean Grenier, Michelle Sirois-Berliss, Monique Lortie-Lussier and Joseph De Koninck
Daily Events and Dream Content: Unsuccessful Matching Attempts 
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 10(2) 77-83, Jun 2000.

 Abstract: 

Event descriptions (ED) from 6 different days and 6 corresponding morning dream reports (DR) were obtained from 13 participants.  In a within-participant matching task, 14 untrained undergraduate student judges attempted to pair 6 EDs to 6 corresponding DRs for each of 6 participants.  In a between-participant matching task, the same judges attempted to match 6 EDs from different participants to their respective DRs.  For the within-participant task, a significance test for a single mean indicated that judges were unable to match dreams to their corresponding daily events at better than chance levels.  For the between-participant matching task, however, it appears that judges were able to make pairs at significant levels but were still making on average less than 2 out of the possible 6 pairs per item. In a ranking task, two different judges read 1 ED and 6 DRs and then ranked the dreams from 1 to 6, 1 being most likely to be related to the ED and 6 being the least likely. Statistical tests revealed that dreams did not obtain better ranks (closer to 1) when they were the correct match than when they were not.  These data appear to demonstrate that independent observers are unable to detect a clear resemblance between participants’ daily events and manifest dream content.    

Key Words: dream content; presleep ideation; continuity.

Yoram  Bilu
Oneirobiography and Oneirocommunity in Saint Worship in Israel: A Two-Tier Model for Dream-Inspired Religious Revivals  
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 10(2) 85-101, Jun 2000.

Abstract:

This essay explores the role of visitational dreams (see Crapanzano 1975; Wallace 1958) in the revival of the folk-veneration of saints (tsaddiqim; sing. tsaddiq) in Israel, and particularly in the establishment of local shrines for Jewish saints from Morocco.  The analysis I propose highlights visitational dreams as a cardinal psychocultural mechanism through which the collective representation or public symbol of the tsaddiq becomes a mental representation or a personal symbol capable of articulating inchoate experiences, constructing social reality, and instigating action (Obeyesekere 1981; Spiro 1987) . In other words, I view the tsaddiq in the dream as a vivid example of swing concepts, those cultural elements "which have both intense personal resonance and rich social significance, and thus infuse social issues with deep personal emotions" (Kracke 1994: 200) .  Before exploring this Janus-faced character of visitational dreams, the ethnocultural framework in which these dreams have been experienced and shared is presented in brief.

Ernest  Hartmann
We Do Not Dream of the 3R’s: Implications for the Nature of Dreaming Mentation  
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 10(2) 103-110, Jun 2000.

  Abstract:

This report examines the extent to which dream recall which involves the "3 R's" (reading, writing, and arithmetic).  Two separate studies were done.  In the first study, two scorers rated, on a blind basis, a total of  456 written dream reports, available from five previous studies.  There was perfect agreement between the two scorers.  They agreed that there were no instances of reading, no instances of writing, and one instance of probable calculating in the 456 dreams. The second study was a questionnaire survey.  Complete responses were obtained from 240 frequent dreamers (who reported remembering a mean of seven dreams per week).  The study examined in two ways the frequency of the 3 R's in their recalled dreams.  First, in answer to direct questions as to how frequently they dreamt about each activity, roughly 90% of the respondents reported that they "never" or "hardly ever" dreamt about each of four activities: reading, writing, typing, and calculating.  In answers to other questions, this group reported spending a mean of six hours per day engaged in these activities.  Second, responses as to the relative prominence of six activities (walking, writing, talking with friends, reading, sexual activity, typing) in dreaming versus waking produced two clear groupings of activities.  "Walking", "talking with friends", and "sexual activity" were each rated almost as prominent in dreaming as in waking whereas the second group consisting of "writing", "reading", and "typing" were rated as far more prominent in waking than in dreaming.  The two activity groups differed at p < .0001. Thus, the 3 R’s appear to occur very infrequently in dreams.  These findings are placed in a theoretical frame which suggests that dreaming (compared to waking) deals very little with serial activities characterized by "input — rapid-processing — output" in which the neural nets function in a feed-forward mode.  Rather, dreaming may be characterized by relatively broad or loose connection making in which the nets function more in an autoassociative mode.

Key Words: dreaming; 3 R's; reading; writing; arithmetic; connectionist nets.

Barbara Vann and Neil Alperstein
Dream Sharing as Social Interaction  
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 10(2) 111-119, Jun 2000.

Abstract:

  A survey was administered to 241 individuals whose questionnaire responses were analyzed to determine if they told their dreams to others, to whom they told their dreams, for what purpose, and in what social contexts dreams were shared. Respondents were also asked whether there were types of dreams they would not tell and individuals with whom they would not share dreams. This exploratory study suggests that dream sharing is a part of everyday social interaction, with the primary purpose of entertainment. There are gender differences with regard to dream sharing, and this sharing involves the utilization of social practices whereby individuals may protect themselves and others through deciding whether or not to share a dream. The study describes dream sharing as a social act that is negotiated based on the social rules regarding what topics friends and other intimates share in public or private.

Key Words: dream sharing; social rules; social interaction; dream functions.