Human Sciences Press, Inc., New York City

Volume 2, Number 1, March 1992

Nightmare Frequency and Related Sleep Disturbance as Indicators of a History of Sexual Abuse
Marion A. Cuddy and Kathryn Belicki
Page 15

Scripts and the Structuralist Analysis of Dreams
Mark Blagrove
Page 23

Effect of Encouragement on Dream Recall
G. Halliday
Page 39

The Devil's Gateway: An Eros of Difference in the Dreams of Perpetua
Patricia Cox Miller
Page 45

Ostow, Mortimer.
The interpretation of apocalyptic dreams.
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 2(1) 1-14, Mar 1992.

Abstract:

Many of the dreams of patients with disorders of affect regulation exhibit alternating episodes clearly recognizable as representing death and rebirth. This alternation plus other occasional elements such as revelation, remind one of the characteristic components of classical apocalypse. The phenomenon, observed in the course of psychotherapy, informs the therapist of the patient's struggle to control their affects. When medication is used, these dreams offer clues to the proper selection of medication and help to monitor its effects.

Key Words: dreams; apocalypse; death and rebirth fantasies; affect regulation.

Cuddy, Marion A., and Belicki, Kathryn.
Nightmare frequency and related sleep disturbance as indicators of a history of sexual abuse.
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 2(1) 15-22, Mar 1992.

Abstract:

The present study examined the relationship of sexual abuse to nightmare frequency and related sleep disturbance. Subjects were 539 undergraduate women, who completed a Nightmare/Sleep History Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and a questionnaire which inquired into histories of "unwanted sexual activity" and physical abuse. Based on their self report 124 subjects reported a history of some form of sexual abuse, 71 reported physical abuse and 344 no abuse. Analyses of covariance controlling for depression, found that the two abuse groups had higher nightmare and night terror frequency, and had greater difficulty returning to sleep after awakening from a nightmare.

Key Words: nightmares; sleep disturbance; abuse; dreaming.

Blagrove, Mark.
Scripts and the structuralist analysis of dreams.
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 2(1) 23-37, Mar 1992.

Abstract:

Baylor and Deslauriers' application of script theory to dreams is described. The theory views dreams in waking-life terms of having characters with knowledge, plans, goals, and reasons. Problems with the notion of imaginary characters having their own goals are examined. A comparison is then made between this phenomenological theory and semiological structuralist analysis. A dream previously analyzed in terms of a script is reanalyzed along structuralist lines to illustrate how a dream can be a rebus-like derivative of another world (the waking world) rather than be itself a world in which dream characters temporarily live. Implications for the problem-solving theory of dreams are discussed.

Key Words: dream; dream analysis; dream problem-solving.

Halliday, G.
Effect of encouragement on dream recall.
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 2(1) 39-44, Mar 1992.

Abstract:

Forty-five patients at a community mental health center, when asked as part of their regular intake interview, denied recall of dreams for the prior month. Half of these were given strong encouragement to recall their dreams; half were simply questioned about the presence or absence of dream recall. Both groups reported increased dream recall at the next therapy appointment with 32% of the "question only" group and 68% of the "strong encouragement" group recalling dreams. The difference between these two groups on dream recall was significant. It is concluded that encouragement to recall dreams can be useful to reduce dream amnesia.

Key Words: dream; dream recall; encouragement.

Miller, Patricia Cox
The Devil's gateway: An Eros of difference in the dreams of Perpetua.
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 2(1) 45-63, Mar 1992.

Abstract:

Vibia Perpetua was a young Carthaginian Christian who was arrested in 203 C.E. by Roman authorities because she refused to recant her faith. While in prison, she kept a diary in which she recorded four dreams. This essay offers a reading of those dreams from a feminist, postmodern perspective, which enables an exploration of the dreams as texts that work against paternal definitions of woman. When read as expressions of female desire, the dream-diary shows Perpetua to have been caught in a paradoxical situation: in her "outer" life, she was preparing to die for a theology that devalued her female being, while in her "inner" life the images of her dreams were subverting the univocal presuppositions upon which patriarchal devaluations of women depended. Using the idea of "carnivalesque discourse," this essay argues that Perpetua's dream-diary can be read as a powerful articulation of the value of difference in the context of a religious system that suppresses it.

Key Words: dreaming; theology, religion; feminism.