Dream Characters Research Articles

Psychodynamics of Dreams

The discovery of psychodynamics formed the foundation of psychoanalytic theory, the core of which was S. Freud’s work “The Interpretation of Dreams.” The passage of the psyche through three key psychodynamic points (cathexis, catharsis and basic anxiety) determines the “scene” and character of dreams. For researchers of psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytic theory of dreams, this factor is one of the fundamental ones in practical work.

Visual perspective, distance, and felt presence of others in dreams

The peripersonal space, that is, the limited space surrounding the body, involves multisensory coding and representation of the self in space. Previous studies have shown that peripersonal space representation and the visual perspective on the environment can be dramatically altered when neurotypical individuals self-identify with a distant avatar (i.e., in virtual reality) or during clinical conditions (i.e., out-of-body experience, heautoscopy, depersonalization). Despite its role in many cognitive/social functions, the perception of peripersonal space in dreams, and its relationship with the perception of other characters (interpersonal distance in dreams), remain largely uncharted. The present study aimed to explore the visuospatial properties of this space, which is likely to underlie self-location as well as self/other distinction in dreams. 530 healthy volunteers answered a web-based questionnaire to measure their dominant visuo-spatial perspective in dreams, the frequency of recall for felt distances between their dream self and other dream characters, and the dreamers’ viewing angle of other dream characters. Most participants reported dream experiences from a first-person perspective (1PP) (82%) compared to a third-person perspective (3PP) (18%). Independent of their dream perspective, participants reported that they generally perceived other dream characters in their close space, that is, at distance of either between 0 and 90 cm, or 90–180 cm, than in further spaces (180–270 cm). Regardless of the perspective (1PP or 3PP), both groups also reported more frequently seeing other dream characters from eye level (0° angle of viewing) than from above (30° and 60°) or below eye level (−30° and −60°). Moreover, the intensity of sensory experiences in dreams, as measured by the Bodily Self-Consciousness in Dreams Questionnaire, was higher in individuals who habitually see other dream characters closer to their personal dream self (i.e., within 0–90 cm and 90–180 cm). These preliminary findings offer a new, phenomenological account of space representation in dreams with regards to the felt presence of others. They might provide insights not only to our understanding of how dreams are formed, but also to the type of neurocomputations involved in self/other distinction.

Free Association and Inner Speech-On the Internal Form of Words.

This comment paper reviews Fossa (2022) from the perspective of the semiotics of inner speech. The syntactic and semantic features of inner speech described in Vygotsky, Thinking and Speech, Chap.7, are, on the one hand, a source of creativity through the affective dimension of inner spech and, on the other hand, a therapeutic function of psychoanalysis and other forms of psychotherapy. The function of inner speech in the pre-reflective dimension is the focus of Fossa's edited volume. In order to reinforce this argument, the present paper takes as its cue the internal forms of words discussed by Potebnya and examines them. The internal form of words has certain primordial features and evokes a figure (образ; picture). Internal forms have figurative properties. Through this context-independent figuration (phonological, visual image, experiential sense of meaning), semantics causes a unit with other words in a loose semantic linkage. As they are not bound by the external form of segmented speech, they bring about a sense of reification, as if the internal form repeats itself in the proximity of semantic sense, even if the manifested expressive content is different. The internal form of words, in which the form conveys meaning as it is, reveals the semiotic character of dreams and free association, which psychoanalysis uses as clinical material. Many psychotherapies actively use pre-linguistic mediating effects, because surrendering to the internal forms that are repeated in inner speech allows the subject to return to a pre-reflective dimension from which a new subject can be recovered. From the above, this paper has shown that in the boundary zone of the transition from inner speech to outer speech situations, exposure to alterity, to intimate unknown, is involved in the constitution of the subject.

Continuity or compensation? – A hypothesis testing study concerning two types of dreamers’ Aggressive Behaviors in Nightmares

Being the aggressor in dreams has been investigated relatively sparsely. On the one hand, these kinds of nightmares may represent continuity of aggression in waking-life, but on the other hand, being the aggressor in dreams may compensate failing (suppressed) aggression from waking-life. Two subtypes of aggressor nightmares should thus be distinguished: Those in which the dreamer is the primary aggressor and those, in which the dreamer reacts with aggression to a threatening event. We hypothesized that nightmares in which the aggressive event was caused by the dream-self may be related to waking-life aggression according to the continuity hypothesis, while in nightmares, in which the aggressive event by the dream-self was the response to threats caused by other dream-characters, the dream-self may be reacting in self-defense. Thus, participants who dreamt that the aggressive act was initiated by the dream-self should be more aggressive in waking-life (supporting continuity) than those who dreamt that the offending act was initiated by other dream characters, and the dream-self was only reacting (supporting compensation). Waking-life aggression was obtained with the Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Results showed that dreamers who dreamt that their dream-self initiated the aggressive act were more aggressive in waking-life than those who dreamt that other dream characters had initiated the aggressive act. Nightmares with aggression done by the dream-self thus support the continuity hypothesis of dreaming while aggressor nightmare with reactive aggression of the dream-self support the compensatory hypothesis of dreaming.

Explaining the illusion of independent agency in imagined persons with a theory of practice

ABSTRACT Many mental phenomena involve thinking about people who do not exist. Imagined characters appear in planning, dreams, fantasizing, imaginary companions, bereavement hallucinations, auditory verbal hallucinations, and as characters created in fictional narratives by authors. Sometimes these imagined persons are felt to be completely under our control, as when one fantasizes about having a great time at a party. Other times, characters feel as though they are outside of our conscious control. Dream characters, for example, are experienced by dreamers as autonomous entities, and often do things that frighten and surprise dreamers. Some imagined persons, such as characters in fiction, start off under conscious control of the author, but over time, can appear to gain an illusion of independent agency. I propose an explanation for different autonomy attributions: characters are by default non-autonomous, unless their personalities are well-practiced. Characters become autonomous because modeling their thinking has become automatized, like many other well-practiced activities.

Traumatic dreams in a women's prison setting.

This study was constructed to (a) ascertain the incidence and character of traumatic dreams in a women's prison, (b) determine whether this was associated strongly with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and (c) determine whether this symptom was being treated. Inmates at a women's prison in Wisconsin were surveyed. The response rate was > 75% for the available population. Greater than 88% of the respondents had experienced a traumatic event; > 45% had experienced six or more. Seventy-four percent of the inmates were experiencing traumatic dreams at the time of the survey. Many (> 30%) experienced these nightly and as extreme (19%). Of inmates experiencing traumatic dreams, only about 50% were diagnosed with PTSD, and of these, 84% were willing to obtain treatment, not yet provided. There is a high incidence in this women's prison of traumatic dreams. This is far more prevalent than the diagnosis of PTSD. This symptom may be undertreated by prison mental health professionals both behaviorally and pharmacologically and should become a mental health screening question on admission despite the presence or absence of a diagnosis of PTSD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Body, Experience, and the History of Dream-Science in Artemidorus’Oneirocritica

AbstractThe five books of Artemidorus of Ephesus’ Oneirocritica (c. second century CE) constitute the largest collection of divinatory dream-interpretations to survive from Graeco-Roman antiquity. This article examines Artemidorus’ contribution to longstanding medico-philosophical debates over the ontological and epistemic character of such dreams. As with wider Mediterranean traditions concerning premonitory dreams, Greeks and Romans popularly understood them as phenomena with origins exterior to the dreamer (e.g. a visitation of a god). Presocratic and Hippocratic thinkers, however, initiated an effort to bring at least some dream events within the body as interior processes of a physical soul, a bodily turn which ultimately engendered a split in thinking about the possibility and scope of prophetic and diagnostic dreams (e.g. Hippocrates Regimen 4, Aristotle On Prophecy in Dreams, Rufus of Ephesus, and Galen). Here, I examine the way that Artemidorus meant the Oneirocritica to address seriously questions about the origins of dreams and the powers of empirical science in two, related ways. We will see that his defense of oneirocriticism as a techne unfolds along two main axes. First, Artemidorus constructs a necessary veneer of scientific credibility by mobilizing the tropes and organizational strategies characteristic of contemporary technical literature. Secondly, he anchors that authority upon a materialist account of prophetic dreams as “semiotic movements of the soul.” As Price, S. 1986. “The Future of Dreams: From Freud to Artemidorus.”Past & Present113: 3–36 and Harris-McCoy, D. 2012.Artemidorus’ Oneirocritica: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press observed, this explicit commitment to an empirical method of dream-interpretation resembles that of the Hellenistic medical ‘sect’ known as ‘Empiricists,’ who eschewed interest in theoretical etiology in favor of observation, comparison, and compilation of symptoms and outcomes. Pushing beyond similarity, I argue that Artemidorus not only deployed this method to defend empirically grounded accounts of dream-divination (cf. Cicero De div. 1), but endeavored to show that such a scientific method can be used to stabilize and corral productively the potentially infinite number of interpretations any dream-sign might bear without recourse to an underlying, causal theory.

Bispectral Index Monitoring and Observer Rating Scale Correlate with Dreaming during Propofol Anesthesia for Gastrointestinal Endoscopies.

Background and objectives: Dreaming is a commonly reported side effect of propofol anesthesia. Materials and Methods: We investigated the inci-dence and character of dreams in patients undergoing intravenous propofol anesthesia and cor-related it with an observer rating scale of facial expression on the seven-point scale from pain to smile. A total of 124 patients undergoing gastrointestinal endoscopy were recruited in the pro-spective observational study. Bispectral index (BIS), blood pressure (BP), and pulse were moni-tored. Upon emergence from anesthesia, the patient’s facial expression was rated numerically. Thereafter, patients were asked whether they had dreams and to rate their dreams as pleasant or unpleasant. The mean age of participants was 53; body mass index, 26.17; duration of procedure, 20 min; and average propofol dose, 265 mg. Results: Dreaming was reported by 43% of patients. Dreams were pleasant in all but one patient. There was a significant correlation of the observer’s rating of facial expression with dreaming (r = 0.260; p = 0.004). Dreamers had higher scores of observer rating of facial expression (1 (0–2) vs. 0.5 (0–1), p = 0.006). Conclusions: BIS values were lower in the dreamers vs. non-dreamers 2 min after the endoscopy started (48 (43–62) vs. 59 (45–71), p = 0.038). Both BIS and observer ratings correlate with dreaming in patients undergoing gastrointestinal endos-copy. Trial registration number: NCT04235894.

Clocks in Dreams: Analysis of a Long Dream Series.

Many dream content analytic studies focus on dream characters, animals, social interactions and so on, but they rarely analyze the frequency of everyday objects in dreams. In the present paper, the frequency and phenomenology of clock dreams in a dream series of 12,476 dreams of a single male dreamer was analyzed. The clock dreams (0.74% of all dreams) show a variety of contexts not only related to the time management of the dreamer within the dream. Interestingly, clocks that belong to the dreamer in waking life occurred very rarely in his dreams. Given that keeping time schedules and appointments in waking life is of importance to almost everyone, the low frequency of clock dreams might be explained by novelty, that is, waking-life experiences that repeat themselves regularly do not show up in dreams that often. Thus, studying everyday objects such as clocks in dreams might help refine the current models describing the continuity between waking and dreaming.

'No Man is an Island': Effects of social seclusion on social dream content and REM sleep.

Based on the Social Simulation Theory of dreaming (SST), we studied the effects of voluntary social seclusion on dream content and sleep structure. Specifically, we studied the Compensation Hypothesis, which predicts social dream contents to increase during social seclusion, the Sociality Bias - a ratio between dream and wake interactions - and the Strengthening Hypothesis, which predicts an increase in familiar dream characters during seclusion. Additionally, we assessed changes in the proportion of REM sleep. Sleep data and dream reports from 18 participants were collected preceding (n = 94), during (n = 90) and after (n = 119) a seclusion retreat. Data were analysed using linear mixed-effects models. We failed to support the Compensation Hypothesis, with dreams evidencing fewer social interactions during seclusion. The Strengthening Hypothesis was supported, with more familiar characters present in seclusion dreams. Dream social interactions maintained the Sociality Bias even under seclusion. Additionally, REM sleep increased during seclusion, coinciding with previous literature and tentatively supporting the proposed attachment function for social REM sleep.

The percentage of male and female dream characters in a long dream series

Previous research based on many dream studies including children, adolescents, students, and adults in different cultures reported a “ubiquitous” sex difference in dreams: Whereas male dream characters are more prominent in men’s dreams compared to female dream characters, women tend to dream equally often about males and females. The present findings of 52% in a series of 3828 dreams recorded by a middle-aged male individual indicate that this gender difference might not be “ubiquitous” but depends on the pattern of waking-life social contacts. Studying the ratio of male and female dream characters might help to understand how social life is reflected in dreams.

Thought-Forms Gone Rogue: A Theory for Psi-Critics and Parapsychologists

It is argued that psi-critics Reber and Alcock have lifted the debate from the impasse concerning the evidence for the existence of psi phenomena, toward focusing on understanding the nature of the phenomena. This focus concerns the demand to show that statistical findings are not anomalies but reflect real cause and effect relationships and to find a common theoretical framework for what otherwise appear to be heterogeneous rogue phenomena. It is maintained here that the demand for showing causal relationships is already met by a methodology using real-time recordings of changing target imagery along with receiver mentation. The demand by critics for a theoretical understanding linking all or most of the rogue phenomena, led to the proposition advanced here concerning thought-forms and co-conscious states. According to this, the many “rogue phenomena” both in psychology and parapsychology (such as automatic writing, lucid dream characters, spirit possessions, and entity experiences in psychedelic states) are to be understood as representing dissociated thought-forms with varying degrees of co-consciousness and in some cases the development of a genuine degree of autonomy and identity.
 Keywords: altered states, thought-forms, consciousness, psi, skepticism, automatic writing, co-consciousness, possession

VARIASI BAHASA DALAM DIALOG TOKOH FILM TOBA DREAMS GARAPAN BENNY SETIAWAN

Language variety is a variant of a language according to usage. This study was conducted to determine the use of language variations in terms of speakers in the movie Toba Dreams director Benny Setiawan. In the film there are some characters who have different ethnic backgrounds and sociology. This study aims to describe dialect and sociology in the dialogue between characters in the movie Toba Dreams. The method used in this research is qualitative descriptive. Provision of data is done by the method refer, by listening and understand the language data in the form of spoken language in the data source dialogue between characters. Technique used is technique record and record. Results from the study. 1) the form of dialect variation, 2) sociolek in dialogue between characters. The results of this study can be used as a reading material for the understanding of the community when viewing the movie Toba Dreams.

Book review: Dreams, Vietnam and Other Dreams, by Marc Levy

The former infantry medic Marc Levy published his dream reports, which he was recording regularly for one year, 45 years after he returned from Vietnam War. After the war, he was suffering from severe nightmares related to war experiences. Those dreams are also published in another book. In his newer dreams, war themes are less frequently occurring. They mostly represent daily concerns, and severe threatening dream themes are occurring rarely, but war themes are still reported. In some dreams, severe conflicts are escalating between the dream-self and other dream characters, where the dream-self is also physically violent. This books offer future research a possibility to compare dream contents of idiopathic and posttraumatic nightmare dreamers over a long time period.

Early maladaptive schemas in most recent dreams: Core fears never sleep

The goals of this study were to develop and assess the reliability of a dream coding system of early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) and modes, to explore whether self versus other dream characters express different EMSs and modes, and to explore cross-state (waking to dreaming) correspondence of EMSs. One hundred and forty-one women completed an online questionnaire that included an adapted version of the Young Schema Questionnaire – Short Form 3 (YSQ-S3) and their most recent dream report. A scoring system was developed based on schema therapy and applied to dreams by four independent judges. Inter-rater reliability ranged from moderate to excellent. There was a differential incorporation of EMSs according to dream characters; self appeared significantly more deprived and weak (e.g., abandoned and abused) and in a vulnerable child mode, whereas others rather expressed grandiosity in an impulsive child mode. Cross-state correspondence was observed for the abandonment/instability EMS. More precisely, the abandonment/instability score on the questionnaire predicted the presence of the analogous EMS in the most recent dream (OR = 1.61). This study provides preliminary evidence that a dream coding system of EMSs can be reliably applied by minimally trained coders. Dreamwork may be a useful addition to guided imagery in schema therapy and appears especially well suited for intervention with adults who fear abandonment.

Dream Characters’ Types of Involvement and Range of Relational Capacities in Non-Lucid Problem-Solving Dreams (Part 2)

Dream characters continue their enduring presence in dreams in general as the prevalent feature of dreaming consciousness. The present work focuses on non-lucid problem-solving dreams, and dream characters’ types of involvement and range of their relational capacities. The analysis of 979 cross-cultural problem-solving dreams using the method of grounded theory yielded 56 exemplary dreams. From the perspective of cross-state consciousness, the tentative explanatory frameworks include attained waking-life relational schemas, habitual or emerging patterns of organizing inner experiences in distress, and potential reliance on adaptive involuntary homeostatic mechanisms. The discussion of results centers on dream characters’ positive and negative involvements in dreamers’ portrayals of family constellations, and dreamers’ reactions and responses to dream characters’ experiencing problems separately from the dreamer and together with the dreamer. In terms of relational capacities, dream characters display beneficence toward the dreamer in the form of kindness, helpful intentions, and behaviors, or they instigate problems for the dreamers and display injurious and harmful attitudes, intentions, or behaviors. Limitations of the study include a study sample from highly motivated dreamers. Further research might focus on similarities or differences in dream characters’ involvement in problematic situations dreamers experience during lucid dreaming.

The characters in dreams from <Sassinamjunggi> and the narrative functions

The characters in dreams from <Sassinamjunggi> and the narrative functions

Dream Characters’ Types of Involvement and Range of Relational Capacities in Non-lucid Problem-Solving Dreams (Part 1)

Dream characters are present in dreams as the pervasive feature of dreaming consciousness. The current research was guided by the question, “What could be the types of dream characters’ involvement and range of their relational capacities in non-lucid problem-solving dreams?” In this study, 979 cross-cultural operationally defined problem-solving dreams were analyzed by the method of grounded theory for the dream characters’ participation and input into solutions and their relational skills, capacities, and abilities. The analysis yielded 56 exemplary dreams ranging from dreamers’ longing for characters and recalling helpful character, to their involvement in family dynamics, characters’ experiences of problems, joint problematic experiences, and characters’ helpful use of capacities and instigation of problems for the dreamer. Discussion revolves about dream characters’ absence and recalled presence. In the subsequent article, the author will present additional results, conclude the discussion, and include limitations of study and suggestions for future research.

Review of Varieties of Dream Characters’ Presence in Non-lucid Dreams

Besides dream selves—the experiencing individual dreamers—non-lucid dreams are often populated by characters. Because it is not yet known what could be the dream characters’ involvement and range of capacities in non-lucid problem-solving dreams, this paper focuses, in the preparation for the second part of this article, on the applicable literature about characters’ presence in non-lucid dreams. The aim of the present paper is thus to briefly review the variety of forms in which dream characters appear; the uncontrollable occurrences they are exposed to; the activities, abilities, or skills they demonstrate; and their ways of involvement with dreamers’ selves.

Inner ghosts: Encounters with threatening dream characters in lucid dreams.

Inner ghosts: Encounters with threatening dream characters in lucid dreams.