Dream Journals, Questionnaires, Interviews, and Observations: Precursors to the Twentieth-Century Content Analysis of Dreams

Abstract

The author reviews dream research featuring content analysis before its solidification by Hall and Van de Castle (The Content Analysis of Dreams. Century Psychology Series. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1966). She discusses the introspective studies of Nelson (American Journal of Psychology, 1.3: 367–401, 1888), Calkins (American Journal of Psychology, 5.3: 311–343, 1893), and others, and various challenges to keeping introspective records, solved by inventions such as electricity, quiet alarm clocks, typewriters, and safety matches. She reviews early survey and questionnaire studies (Sully, Proceedings of the International Congress of Education at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July 25–28. New York: National Education Association, 1894; Jewell, American Journal of Psychology, 16.1: 1–34, 1905) and discusses the contributions of index cards, copying techniques, mass-mailing technology, calculators, tape recorders, and new survey methodologies. She presents Horton’s (The Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 8.6: 393–404, 1914) Dream Analysis Record and the results of observational and interview-based dream studies on children carried out by Berrien (The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 25.2: 110–114, 1930; The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 30.1: 84–91, 1935), Blanchard (The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 21.1: 24–37, 1926), Deutsch (Psychoanalytic Review, 15: 288–293, 1928), MacKaye (The Psychological Clinic, 17: 234–238, 1929), Kimmins (Children’s Dreams. London: Longmans Green, 1920; Children’s Dreams. A Handbook of Child Psychology. The International University Series in Psychology, edited by Carl Murchison. Reprint, Worcester: Clark University Press, 527–554, 1931; Children’s Dreams: An Unexplored Land. Reprint ed. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1937), Jersild, Markey, and Jersild (Children’s Fears, Dreams, Wishes, Daydreams, Likes, Dislikes, Pleasant and Unpleasant Memories: A Study by the Interview Method of 400 Children Aged 5 to 12. New York: Teacher’s College, Child Development Monographs No. 12, 1933), Davidson (Wishes, Ideas About Changing the World, Greatest Problem, Fears, and Dreams. In Personality and Economic Background: A Study of Highly Intelligent Children, edited by Helen Hiller Davidson, 145–168. New York: King’s Crown Press, 1943), and Witty and Kopel (The Journal of Educational Psychology, 30.3: 199–205, 1939).