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

 Volume 10, Number 3,  September 2000 
  


CONTENTS


The Dream as Text, the Dream as Narrative
Patricia A. Kilroe
Page 125
Available online

Personality and Dream Recall Frequency: Further Negative Findings
Mark Blagrove and Lucy Akehurst
Page 139

John Woolman’s Light in the Night: An Analysis
George Gillespie
Page 149

Does Dream Interpretation Have Any Limits? An Evaluation of Interpretations of the Dream of “Irma’s Injection”
Milton Kramer
Page 161


Patricia A. Kilroe
The Dream as Text, the Dream as Narrative
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 10(3) 125-137, Sep 2000.

Abstract: 

The concepts of "text" and "narrative" are reviewed in terms of their appropriate application to the study of dreams. It is proposed that, once experienced, all dreams are texts, but that not all of these texts are narratives. Blending Jung's proposal for the form of the average dream with basic terms from narratology, dream data are employed in order to examine the narrativity of dreams, and by way of inquiring into cognitive aspects of narrative structure. Questions about the relation between language and narrative structure on the one hand, and between dreaming and language on the other are also briefly taken up.

Key Words: text; narrative; verbal thought.

Available online


Mark Blagrove and Lucy Akehurst  
Personality and Dream Recall Frequency: Further Negative Findings
 
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 10(3) 139-148, Sep 2000.

Abstract:

On the basis of previous findings of dream recall frequency being associated with thin boundariness and sensitivity we assessed the association between DRF and variables that appear related to these two measures.  Data from 93 participants (47 males, 46 females, mean age 21.3, SD=3.5) show that dream recall frequency (DRF) correlates marginally with neuroticism (r=.20) and interrogative suggestibility (r=.21), the latter result indicating that DRF obtained by questionnaire may be subject to demand bias.  DRF had very low correlations with various other personality variables (need for cognition, personal locus of control, hypochondriasis, morningness-eveningness), and with narrative memory, confabulation of narrative memory, and habitual sleep length.  DRF correlated positively with POMS elated (-depressed) for males (r=.31) but negatively for females (r=-.19), this significant difference in correlations may be due to sex differences in DRF in response to stress. The frequent findings of small or nonsignificant correlations between DRF and personality are discussed in terms of similar low correlations in personality psychology, but we conclude that DRF is usually sampled adequately, and that the results of no simple relationship with personality (except boundariness, creativity, and positive attitude towards dreams) are therefore robust and may indicate that dream recall is mainly determined physiologically.

Key Words: dreams; dream recall; personality; suggestibility.


George Gillespie  
John Woolman’s Light in the Night: An Analysis

Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 10(3) 149-160, Sep 2000.

 Abstract:

This is an analysis of a religious experience in the night recorded in the journal of John Woolman, a colonial Quaker.  As a basis for analysis, I try to clarify the data of Woolman’s experience without presuppositions about causes, states of consciousness, three-dimensional space, or meaning.  I then study the phenomena in the light of what we know about perception, dreaming, hallucinatory geometric forms, light, and other people’s comparable experiences.  Because different modalities of his experience appear to be in different states at the same time, I examine each part of his experience separately. There is discussion of the relationship of dreams to visions and hallucinations, the concept of discrete states of consciousness, and the distinction between simulation and authentic experience while dreaming.  The article is both an analysis of a religious experience recorded in 1757 and a discussion of methods of analysis.

Key Words: dreaming; hallucinations; phenomenology; religion; John Woolman


Milton Kramer  
Does Dream Interpretation Have Any Limits? An evaluation of interpretations of the dream of “Irma’s Injection”
 

Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 10(3) 161-178, Sep 2000.

Abstract:

Dream interpretative efforts appear unconstrained by methodological standards. An examination of the re-interpretations of Freud’s dream of “Irma’s Injection,” the dream specimen of psychoanalysis, illustrates the undisciplined nature of dream interpretation. Reading “in” from presumed day residues or infantile experiences rather than “out” from the dream report per se lies at the heart of the problem. The failure to spell out inferences, to link inferences to the dream text, to explain and maintain the relationships in the dream report, and to offer a substitute text for the entire dream text all contribute to the inadequacies of dream interpretation.

Key Words: dreams; interpretation; psychoanalysis.


 

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