Can stimulus-incorporation and emotion-assimilation theorists revive the continuity hypothesis they deprived of cognitive meaning? A reply to Jenkins.
Jenkins’ (2018) attempt to defend the theorists I snidely called concept snatchers (based on a 1978 movie on “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers”) is beside the point: They did not take or steal ideas. They presented their version of the continuity hypothesis “without any mention of the original meaning of the concept . . .” (Domhoff, 2017, p. 15). They buried the original ideas by ignoring them, which is what led to the critique, not simply their adoption of the term. By talking about the everyday usage of the term continuity, Jenkins (2018) exculpated these theorists from a deficiency in their scholarship: a fa...
Source: Dreaming - December 17, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Dream content corresponds with dreamer’s psychological problems and personality structure and with improvement in psychotherapy: A typology of dream patterns in dream series of patients in analytical psychotherapy.
This qualitative study of patients’ dreams in analytical psychotherapy using the method of Structural Dream Analysis investigated 15 cases and 202 dreams. In total, 5 major dream patterns were identified and that accounted for the majority of the dreams. The clients’ dream series were dominated by 1 or 2 repetitive patterns, which were closely connected to the psychological problems of the dreamers. In addition, typical changes in the dream series’ patterns could be identified that corresponded with therapeutic change. These findings support Jung’s theory of dreams as providing a holistic image of the dreamer’s p...
Source: Dreaming - November 26, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Iranians’ beliefs about dreams: Developing and validating the My Beliefs about Dreams Questionnaire.
Several different beliefs about the importance of dreams have been recorded from ancient times to the present. In ancient Iranian culture, dreams had a special importance. Similarly, in modern times, Iranians pay much attention to their dreams. The present questionnaire study of several beliefs about dreams describes the beliefs of 486 Iranian university students in Tehran (men = 253; women = 233) from the Tarbiat Modares and Allameh Tabatabai University about their dreams through administering of the My Beliefs About Dream Questionnaire (MBDQ). The two main objectives of the research were to examine the psychometric prope...
Source: Dreaming - September 17, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Virtual reality-enabled treatment of nightmares.
We pilot tested the efficacy of a virtual reality-based imagery rehearsal and rescripting treatment (ReScript) for nightmares. Nineteen community volunteers (Mage = 49 years) who varied in terms of their nightmare distress levels participated in a 4-week-long trial of ReScript therapy. Participants used VR manual controls in an Oculus headset to manipulate 3 scary or threatening images per session with 2 sessions per week. The object was to manipulate these images into less scary or threatening images so as to gain cognitive control over intrusive imagery and to lessen overall anxiety or nightmare distress or nightmare day...
Source: Dreaming - September 17, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Lucid nightmares: A survey of their frequency, features, and factors in lucid dreamers.
This article reports the first systematic study on lucid nightmares—terrifying lucid dreams with a lack of dream control. An online survey was completed by 634 participants, of whom 574 had had previous lucid dream experience. According to the reports of lucid dreamers, less than half of them had experienced a lucid nightmare, and only 1% of them could be considered as suffering from lucid nightmares—experiencing them once a week or more frequently. Lucid nightmares appear to be as distressing as ordinary nightmares. Lack of dream control and intense fear are among their most common features, followed by violent autono...
Source: Dreaming - September 17, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
When is a continuity hypothesis not a continuity hypothesis? Why continuity is now a problematic name for a continuity hypothesis.
This article suggests that a large part of the present problem lies in Hall’s original choice of the name continuity without any qualification. When Domhoff, and Hall before him, used continuity, they were using it to denote their own particular meaning, thus creating an ambiguity in the word continuity. Domhoff’s title, “Invasion of the concept snatchers . . .” (2017), suggests that something has been taken or even stolen. This article asks the following: What does he own? What could be stolen? It suggests that a name change is advisable to clarify the current and any future language issues. (PsycINFO Database Rec...
Source: Dreaming - August 20, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Adaptive nightmares of Holocaust survivors: The Auschwitz camp in the former inmates’ dreams.
This study, based on the testimonies submitted by former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners to Polish psychiatrists in 1973, is focused on examining the most traumatic dreams of the former inmates—the dreams about the camp, dreamt in the postwar period. These dreams were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. For quantitative analyses, Hall and Van de Castle’s (1966) coding system was applied. The main goal of this study was to test the hypothesis—based mainly on Hartmann’s (2001a, 2001b, 2011) theory—that even such terrifying nightmares can have adaptive and healing potential. This hypothesis has been co...
Source: Dreaming - August 9, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Pathological narcissism, dream experiences, and personality dynamics.
This study investigated whether narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability are related to the incidence of dreaming about persecutory themes, dream work, and dream–reality confusion and whether these relationships are modulated by superego functions, affective traits, splitting defense, somatoform distress, and hypochondriacal disturbance. The Pathological Narcissism Inventory, Dream Intensity Scale (Diffusion), Dream Motif Scale (Persecution), Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale, International Personality Item Pool (Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Healthy Anxiety), Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire, Aff...
Source: Dreaming - August 6, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
An integrative model proposal about underlying mechanisms involved in disturbing dream themes: Defense styles, dysfunctional attitudes, interpersonal styles, and dream themes.
The aim of the study was to investigate the psychological processes pointed out by dream contents and themes. For this purpose, a model that indicates mediation roles of interpersonal relationship style and dysfunctional attitudes, on the relationship between immature and neurotic defense mechanisms and disturbing dream themes in addition to direct relationship between these defense mechanisms and disturbing dream themes, was examined. The sample included 610 adults within the age range of 18 to 65. The results of the structural equation modeling analysis demonstrated that the proposed model fitted the values for a good mo...
Source: Dreaming - July 19, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The phenomenology of dream–reality confusion: A quantitative study.
Dream–reality confusion (DRC) is a difficulty or an impossibility to determine whether an event or an experience took place during wakefulness or if it was the content of a dream. The main goal of the present study was to explore characteristics of participants from the general population who often/very often experience DRC in comparison with those who never/almost never experience it. Altogether, 82 participants were investigated with a set of questionnaires. Results of the study indicate that individuals prone to DRC—in comparison with those who rarely or do not at all experience DRC—more often experience various s...
Source: Dreaming - July 19, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Pilot study: Brief posttrauma nightmare treatment for persons with bipolar disorder.
Previous research on an efficacious cognitive-behavioral treatment for posttrauma nightmares and sleep disturbances (exposure, relaxation, and rescripting therapy; ERRT) has not tested the treatment in individuals with bipolar disorder. However, research suggests that individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder are at increased risk for trauma exposure and development of posttrauma symptoms. The present pilot study sought to examine the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of a modified version of ERRT (ERRT-B) on reducing the frequency and severity of nightmares and improving sleep quality for 7 trauma-exposed individua...
Source: Dreaming - June 21, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Offender-nightmares: Two pilot studies.
Being the victim of an aggressor in nightmares is quite common for most persons, but there are also nightmares where the dream-self can become the offender. Two studies were conducted in two nonclinical samples of participants with frequent nightmares to investigate the so-called offender-nightmares. Study 1 served to assess the frequency of offender-nightmares in persons with frequent nightmares and the motives and actions in these dreams during a 28-day interval, whereas in Study 2, correlations to personality variables were investigated. The results indicate that the occurrence of offender-nightmares is not negligible; ...
Source: Dreaming - June 21, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Dream content in pregnancy and postpartum: Refined exploration of continuity between waking and dreaming.
The present study is an extension of previous work on the dreams of pregnant women, with a large sample from pregnancy and postpartum. In total, 143 pregnant women completed dream diaries during 3 distinct periods. Also, 125 nonpregnant women completed a dream diary on 1 occasion. Pregnancy- and motherhood-related oneiric characteristics, as well as negative versus positive dream elements, were coded by 2 independent judges. Results revealed that pregnant women experienced more direct in-dream representations of pregnancy and motherhood than the comparison group. However, no differences in oneiric emotional content were ob...
Source: Dreaming - June 21, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Dream content and procedural learning in Vipassana meditators and controls.
This study aimed at investigating whether meditators have qualitatively different dreams than do controls, whether meditators incorporate a procedural learning task more often than do controls, and whether dreaming about the task is related to better postsleep performance on the task. Twenty meditators and 20 controls slept for a daytime nap in the laboratory. Before sleeping and upon awakening, they completed a procedural learning task. Dream reports were collected at sleep onset and upon awakening (REM or N2 sleep). Dreams were then scored for qualities associated with meditation practice and for incorporations of the pr...
Source: Dreaming - June 21, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The meaningful continuities between dreaming and waking: Results of a blind analysis of a woman’s 30-year dream journal.
This article reports the findings of a new exercise in the “blind analysis” of a long dream series. The study focused on 940 dreams of a woman (“Beverly”) who kept a regular dream journal for 30 years. Four subsets of her dreams (from 1986, 1996, 2006, and 2016) were analyzed using a digital word search template, and then predictions were made about Beverly’s waking life based on the word usage frequencies of her dreams. A total of 26 predictions were made, of which Beverly confirmed 23 as accurate. The correct inferences included aspects of Beverly’s emotional temperament, preoccupations, relationships, financ...
Source: Dreaming - June 14, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
