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

 Volume 11, Number 2, June 2001

  

Predictors of Outcome of Dream Interpretation Sessions: Volunteer Client Characteristics, Dream Characteristics, and Type of Interpretation
Clara E. Hill, Frances A. Kelley, Timothy L. Davis, Rachel E. Crook, Leslie E. Maldonado, Maria A. Turkson, Teresa L. Wonnell,V. Suthakaran, Jason S. Zack, Aaron B. Rochlen, Misty R. Kolchakian, and Jamila N. Codrington
Page 53

Exotic Dreams: A Cross-Cultural Study
Stanley Krippner and Laura Faith
Page 73

Boundary Questionnaire Results in the Mentally Healthy Elderly
Arthur T. Funkhouser, Othmar Würmle, Claude M. Cornu, and Marcel Bahro
Page 83

What Do We Really Know About Mendeleev’s Dream of the Periodic Table? A Note on Dreams of Scientific Problem Solving
George W. Baylor
Page 89

Comment on Baylor: A Note About Dreams of Scientific Problem Solving
Deirdre Barrett
Page 93

Contextualizing Images in Dreams and Daydreams
Ernest Hartmann, Robert Kunzendorf, Rachel Rosen, and Nancy Gazells Grace
Page 97

Clara E. Hill, Frances A. Kelly, Timothy L. Davis, Rachel E. Crook, Leslie E. Maldonado, Maria A. Turkson, Teresa A. Wonnell,V. Suthakaran, Jason S. Zack, Aaron B. Rochlen, Misty R. Kolchakian, and Jamila N. Codrington.
Predictors of Outcome of Dream Interpretation Sessions: Volunteer Client Characteristics, Dream Characteristics, and Type of Interpretation
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 11(2) 53-72, Jun 2001.

Abstract:

105 volunteer clients completed single sessions of dream interpretation using the Hill (1996) model, with half randomly assigned to waking life interpretation and the other half to parts of self interpretation in the insight stage of the Hill model. No differences were found between waking life and parts of self interpretations, suggesting that therapists can use either type of dream interpretation. Volunteer clients who had positive attitudes toward dreams and presented pleasant dreams had better session outcome; in addition, volunteer clients who had pleasant dreams gained more insight into their dreams. Results suggest that therapists doing single sessions of dream interpretation need to be cautious about working with dreams when volunteer clients have negative attitudes toward dreams and present unpleasant dreams.

Key Words: dream interpretation; attitudes toward dreams; dream valence; waking life; parts of self.

Available online

Stanley Krippner and Laura Faith
Exotic Dreams: A Cross-Cultural Study
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 11(2) 73-82, Jun 2001.

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to identify “exotic” (i.e., puzzling, unusual, extraordinary, anomalous) dreams in a sample of 1,666 dream reports from six countries, and to make gender comparisons as well. Research participants were members of dream seminars that one of us conducted between 1990 and 1998 in Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States. Only one dream report per participant was utilized, 910 dream reports from women and 756 from men. Scoring criteria were determined in advance for creative, lucid, healing, dreams within dreams, out-of-body, telepathic, mutual (and shared), clairvoyant, precognitive, past-life, initiation, and visitation dreams. When a dream fell into two categories, it received a score of 0.5 for each of the categories, rather than a score of 1.0, awarded when a dream represented a single category. In the sample of 1,666 dreams, there were 135 (8.1%) exotic dreams. Female dreamers reported 77 (8.5% of all female reports) exotic dreams, while male dreamers reported 58 (7.7% of all male reports), the difference was not statistically significant. The country with the highest percentage of exotic dream reports was Russia (12.7% of the total number reported by Russian seminar participants), followed by Brazil (10.9%), Argentina (9.0%), Japan (8.1%), Ukraine (5.9%), and the United States (5.7%). When chi square statistics were applied, it was found that Russian dreamers reported significantly more exotic dreams than dreamers in Ukraine or the United States.

Key Words: cross-cultural studies; dreams.

Arthur T. Funkhouser, Othmar Würmel, Claude M. Cornu, and Marcel Bahro
Boundary Questionnaire Results in the Mentally Healthy Elderly
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 11(2) 83-88, Jun 2001.

Abstract:

The Hartmann Boundary Questionnaire was administered twice, with six months in between, to 61 Swiss subjects over 60 years of age taking part in an investigation into the effects of dream-telling on five variables:  well-being, sleep quality, sleep duration, dream recall and dream tone.  In addition, dream epoch, i.e., the age of life of the dreamer as perceived in the dream, was recorded for those who told dreams.  In addition to this study group in which the members told dreams there were two control groups.  Those in the first control group were asked about well-being and sleep quality but not about dreams or dreaming, while those in the second control group were additionally asked how many dreams they had retained, how frequently they had occurred and about the dream tone (pleasant/unpleasant).  All study participants were given the Hartmann Boundary Questionnaire at the beginning (pre-test) and again at the end of the six month study period (post-test).  The retest reliability was high (r = 0.872 for the whole sample).  We report here the relationships obtained between the questionnaire scores and age, group membership, gender and the number of dreams that were retained over a 26 week testing period.  No significant correlations were found for age, group membership or dream recall.  There was, however, a small, significant boundary score difference between women and men for the pre-test, indicating thinner boundaries for women, but this difference was no longer significant in the post-test.

Key Words: boundary questionnaire; elderly; gender; age; dream recall.

George W. Baylor 
What Do We Really Know About Mendeleev’s Dream of the Periodic Table? A Note on Dreams of Scientific Problem Solving.
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 11(2) 89-92, Jun 2001.

Abstract:

As is well known, some dreams have been instrumental in important scientific discoveries. Kekulé’s dream of the whirling snakes is probably the most famous instance though there was apparently no public written record of it until some 28 years later. Loewi, even in his own autobiographic material, appears never to have provided a written report of the dream that led him to carry out the experiment demonstrating the chemical transmission of nerve impulses to a frog’s heart. Mendeleev’s dream of the periodic table of elements in its completed form is apparently specious, despite repeated citations. Not only is there no dream report but evidence rests on a colleague’s second-hand account. Kedrov’s examination of archival material indicates (1) that Mendeleev had already discovered the periodic table before the alleged dream took place; and (2) that a dream quite plausibly occurred somewhat later that depicted an improved representation of the periodic table. Kedrov’s reconstruction is consistent with other accounts of dreams and the process of scientific discovery.

Key Words: dreams; Mendeleev; scientific problem solving; creativity.

 Deirdre Barrett  
Comment on Baylor: A Note About Dreams of Scientific Problem Solving
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 11(2) 93-95, Jun 2001.


Abstract:

 Creative problem-solving dreams virtually always occur only after the dreamer has done extensive work on the issue awake.  Most typically, a person is stuck at one particular step of a multiple phase process and the dream solves that step.  The dream of Dmitri Mendeleev about The Periodic Table of the Elements is no exception.  All accounts of this event agree that he'd worked for years on the Table, produced other drafts, but that he attributed the version he was most satisfied with to a dream.  It is less clear whether Kedrov is correct in his reconstruction that it was the reversal of columns vs. rows which the dream provided. Accounts of dreams from contemporary scientists and inventors are a richer source for the detail required to generalize about the role of dreams in problem solving. 

Key Words: dreams; Mendeleev; scientific problem solving; creativity.

Ernest Hartmann, Robert Kunzendorf, Rachel Rosen, and Nancy Gazells Grace
Contextualizing Images in Dreams and Daydreams
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 11(2) 97-104, Jun 2001.

Abstract:

 A contextualizing image (CI) is a powerful central image of a dream which appears to “contextualize” (provide a picture-context for) the dreamer’s emotion.  For instance, dreamers who have experienced any serious traumatic event sometimes dream, “I was overwhelmed by a tidal wave.”  This appears to picture their feeling of terror and/or vulnerability.
                A scoring system for CIs is examined here and is applied to dreams and daydreams supplied by 40 students.  Two raters scoring dreams on a blind basis showed good inter-rater reliability.  Recent dreams were shown to have more as well as more intense CIs than recent daydreams; likewise, dreams “that stand out” had more intense CIs than daydreams that “stand out.”  Students with “thin boundaries” had more and more intense CIs than students with “thick boundaries” in their recent dreams and nightmare, but not so clearly in dreams and nightmares “that stand out.”  The emotions judged as contextualized by the powerful images tended towards fear/terror and helplessness/vulnerability in dreams (especially in dreams that stand out) whereas emotions contextualized by images in daydreams showed a wide range with no clusters.

Key Words: dreams; daydreams; imagery; emotion; contextualizing images.