Volume 5, Number 1, March 1995

Assessing Dreams Through Self-Report Questionnaires: Relations with Past Research and Personality
Daniel M. Bernstein and Brent Roberts
Page 13

The Effectiveness of Dream Interpretation Groups for Women Undergoing a Divorce Transition
Dana R. Falk and Clara E. Hill
Page 29

Reported Association of Stress and Dreaming: Community Background Levels and Changes with Disaster (Hurricane Iniki)
J.F. Pagel, B.H. Vann, and C.A. Altomare
Page 43

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): A New Kind of Dreamwork?
Ricky Greenwald
Page 51

BOOK REVIEW

Crisis Dreaming by Rosalind Cartwright and Lynne Lamberg
Reviewed by Montague Ullman
Page 57

Gruber, Russell E.; Steffen, John J.; Vonderhaar, Steven P.
Lucid dreaming, waking personality and cognitive development.
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 5(1) 1-12, Mar 1995.

Abstract:

Findings are presented from a comparison of waking personality traits (16PF, Cattell, Eber, & Tatsuoka, 1970) characteristic of male and female groups totaling 247 frequent, and 201 infrequent lucid dreamers. Discriminant analyses produced significant findings and similar profiles, for both males and females. Overall, findings are considered suggestive of a strong link between lucid awareness and volition within dreams and the management of waking cognition and emotion. Additionally, support is provided for previously established relationships between lucid dream occurrence and field independence. Results are discussed from a perspective considering the lucid dream phenomenon to be a valuable vantage point from which to explore relationships between dream function and waking cognition. Within this framework, current findings of differences between frequent and infrequent lucid dreamers are postulated to involve variations in the functioning of specific cognitive/developmental processes related to the regulation and discrimination of internally arising subjective aspects of perception.

Key Words: dream; lucid dreaming; personality.

Bernstein, Daniel M.; Roberts, Brent.
Assessing dreams through self-report questionnaires: Relations with past research and personality.
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 5(1) 13-27, Mar 1995.

Abstract:

A questionnaire approach to investigating dream content was developed and compared to personality ratings of the Five Factor Model (FFM). The themes and overall character of self-reported dreams were examined to determine whether they differed markedly from the dream norms obtained by Hall and Van De Castle (1966). Findings were mostly consistent with past norms obtained from dream diary reports and laboratory reports. Some significant correlates between personality and dream content were found. For example, "agreeable" subjects reported more dream characters, while subjects who were "open to experience" reported more unfamiliar dream characters. The findings offer preliminary support for the use of retrospective, self-report questionnaires as measures of dream content.

Key Words: dream content; personality; questionnaire; FFM.

Falk, Dana R.; Hill, Clara E.
The effectiveness of dream interpretation groups for women undergoing a divorce transition.
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 5(1) 29-42, Mar 1995.

Abstract:

22 separated and divorcing women in four 8-week dream interpretation groups were compared to 12 women in a wait-list control condition in terms of changes in anxiety, depression, coping, self-esteem, and insight into their dreams. Results indicated that the women who participated in dream interpretation groups differed from women in the wait-list control group in self-esteem and insight. Thus, dream interpretation groups appeared to be promising for helping women adjust to divorce transitions.

Key Words: dream interpretation; groups; divorce; coping; self-esteem; insight.

Pagel, J.F.; Vann, B.H.; Altomare, C.A.
Reported association of stress and dreaming: Community background levels and changes with disaster (Hurricane Iniki).
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 5(1) 43-50, Mar 1995.

Abstract:

A questionnaire on dreaming was distributed to a heterogenous population of a Family Practice Clinic (N = 265). Respondents were asked how frequently they remembered their dreams, and described them to others, as well as a series of questions assessing the extent to which stress was associated with dreaming. Forty percent of respondents reported their dreaming to be associated with stress some of the time. Responses were analyzed for age, race and gender variation. Stress associated dreaming was found to decrease with advancing age. Women reported dreaming to be associated with stress to a significantly greater extent than men. No significant racial/ethnic variation was found in this sample. In the two months following a generalized disaster (Hurricane Iniki) which affected the study population, the questionnaire was again distributed (N = 22). Respondents in this sample reported dreams to be associated with stress, and dreams related to stressful experience, to a significantly greater extent than the original sample. These results indicate that stressful life events may affect dreaming, especially among younger individuals and women, and indicate that survey methods can be useful in studying the association of stress and dreaming.

Key Words: dream; sleep; stress; age; gender; race; disaster.

Greenwald, Ricky.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR): A new kind of dreamwork?
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 5(1) 51-55, Mar 1995.

Abstract:

A recently developed psychotherapy procedure called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is described. EMDR features focussing on a traumatic memory while moving the eyes rapidly from side to side. This appears to lead to rapid integration of the memory, and elimination of associated symptomatology. EMDR's apparent similarity to dreaming and to therapeutic dreamwork is suggested as a possible key to understanding its underlying mechanism. An illustrative case example is presented.

Key Words: EMDR; REM; eye movement; dream; trauma.