Human Sciences Press, Inc., New York City

Dreaming, Volume 8, Number 1, March 1998

The Effects of Description, Association, or Combined Description/Association in Exploring Dream Images
Clara E. Hill,  Emilie Y. Nakayama, and Teresa L. Wonnell
Page 1
Available online

Handedness and Dream Content
Patrick McNamara,. Jill Clark, and Ernest Hartmann
Page 15

Austrian Dream Behavior: Results of a Representative Population Survey
R. Stepansky, B. Holzinger, A. Schmeiser-Rieder, B. Saletu, M. Kunze, and J. Zeitlhofer 
Page 23

Personality and Dreaming: Boundary Structure and Dream Content
Ernest Hartmann, Rachel Rosen and William Rand
Page 31

BOOK REVIEW

The Neuropsychology of Dreams
Mark Solms
Reviewed by William H Moorcroft
Page 41
 
 
 

Clara E. Hill, Emilie Y. Nakayama, and Teresa L. Wonnell
The Effects of Description, Association, or Combined Description/Association in Exploring Dream Images
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 8(1) 1-13, Mar 1998.

Abstract:

During single 20-40 minute sessions, 51 volunteer clients were given instructions to either describe their dream images in rich detail, to provide associations to the dream images, or to combine these descriptive and associative activities. Volunteer clients in the association condition reported significantly more exploration/insight gains (e.g., becoming involved while working on the dream, making previously unobserved connections between the dream and waking life) than did volunteer clients in the description condition. No differences were found among conditions on clients’ ratings of session depth (e.g., valuable, powerful), judges’ ratings of the cognitive complexity of client's dialogue during the session (e.g., clear, elaborative), judges’ ratings of how insightful clients were in their written dream interpretations, and judges’ ratings of the quality of clients’ written action plans. Implications for dream interpretation are discussed.

Key Words: dream interpretation; dream exploration; description of dream images; association to dream images; psychotherapy process.

 Available online

Abstract:

We tested the hypothesis that dream content would vary as a function of handedness. Seventy-nine self-reported right-handers and 30 self-reported left-handers provided written descriptions of a recent dream. There were no significant differences between handedness groups in mean word length per dream or in mean theme/word ratios. However, compared to dreams reported by right-handers, the dreams of left-handers were characterized by a significantly greater number of high imagery words and words describing affective states. In addition, left-handers were more likely to report that their dreams did not accurately reflect their everyday life-experience. We conclude that handedness may be an important indicator of dream characteristics.

Key Words: handedness; dream content; laterality.

R. Stepansky, M.D., B. Holzinger, Ph.D., A. Schmeiser-Rieder, M.D., B. Saletu, M.D., M. Kunze, M.D., and J. Zeitlhofer, MD, Ph.D.
Austrian Dream Behavior: Results of a Representative Population Survey
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 8(1) 23-30, Mar 1998.

Abstract:

This study was based on a survey of a representative sample of 1000 Austrians who were questioned about their sleep and dream behavior. About two-thirds of the respondents reported that they generally recalled at least one dream per month. Dream recall frequency decreased with advancing age, but did not differ between men and women. Fifty-five percent of the respondents characterized the affective content of their dreams: 29% reported neutral, 20% positive, and 6% negative dreams. Four percent of the sample reported suffering from nightmares. These respondents more frequently reported snoring, interrupted sleep, daytime somnolence, anxiety and nervousness, depression, high dream recall, recurrent dreams, and dreaming in color. Twenty-six percent of the total sample reported that sometimes they realized during their dreams that they were dreaming. These respondents more frequently reported family problems, high dream recall, positive dream content, recurrent dreams, dreaming in color, and nightmares.

Key Words: dream recall; dream content; nightmares; epidemiology.
 
 

Abstract:

Prior studies indicate that a personality dimension reflecting thin versus thick boundaries is related to global ratings of dream vividness, amount of emotion, and amount of interaction.  In the present study, these relationships were examined by relating scores from the Boundary Questionnaire (Hartmann, 1991) to dream content among 80 patients seen at a sleep disorders center.  Thinness of boundaries was significantly correlated with dream length, vividness, amount of detail, and amount of emotion, and showed a trend towards correlation with aggressive interaction and nightmare-likeness.  When dream length was statistically controlled, the relationships between boundary structure and dream content were no longer statistically significant, although amount of emotion and amount of detail showed a trend in the original direction.  A principal components analysis was used to identify three factors in the dream content data (eigenvalues > 1.0).  The first factor involved dream length, vividness, detail, and emotion; the second involved love/tender interaction and sexual interaction; and the third involved aggressive interaction.  Thinness of boundaries showed a significant correlation with only the first factor.  We suggest that the trait continuum ranging from thick to thin boundaries is similar to the state continuum running from focused waking thought to dreaming, and that both continua refer to the same aspects of cortical activity.

Key Words: Personality; Thin and Thick Boundaries; Dream Content.