Dream Imagery Research Articles

Regarding affects and imagery in dreams

Focussing on the affects experienced in 118 dreams, the author puts forward a general principle of orneiric replay of secondary feelings that are real and barely mentalized. This could be a feeling of anxiety experienced in a dream when the “real” anxiousness it replays, that was provoked by a primary psychological “event”, resides in the background. An example of this is the barely anxious feeling that may surface when one is on the way to being devastated by a tormenting memory. The highly mentalized cognitive-affective stimulus (the tormenting memory) is symbolized by the oneiric image (such as a vicious dog). This exploratory study corroborates the theory put forward by Hartmann (2001) in which the image of a dream seems to picture the emotion of the dreamer.

Avoiding Premature Conclusions: The Use of Dreams to Inform the Analyst’s Unfolding Understanding

ABSTRACTDreams create unique opportunities and challenges for the child and adolescent psychoanalyst. The psychoanalytic axiom that dreams are the “royal road to the unconscious” (Freud, 1900, p. 608) can exert an unhelpful pressure to understand and interpret dreams prematurely, especially in work with children and adolescents. It may be useful for the analyst who works with children and adolescents to think about dream imagery kaleidoscopically, allowing his own images of the dreamer’s images to float in mind and to move in and out of consciousness in response to other verbalizations, play, behaviors, and shifting countertransferences. I encourage an open-ended process to dream work that tolerates uncertainty and ongoing questions.

The Sumatraist secret of count Sava Vladislavić's great dreaming: The anamorphosic aim of theatrical doubling, the ex-centred observer, and the regenerative power of collective memory

In her discussion of Melanholični snovi grofa Save Vladislavića (The Melancholy Dreams of Count Sava Vladislavić), an opera by Serbian composer Svetislav Božić, the author begins by discussing the composer's operatic allusion to anamorphosis, an architecture and painting technique, in both of its application modes (the perspectival and the catoptric). The trans-media and temporal conversion of this visual tool into the aspect of staged drama is notable in the theatrical procedure of reflective doublings of roles/ characters and production of visual syntactic parallelisms, which deepen semantic relations between otherwise unrelated personages and events from various but important layers of Serbian cultural and intellectual history (Nemanjić, Nikola Tesla, Count Sava Vladislavić). The logic of unclose similarity and borderline contact relates anamorphosis to a special way of ordering the imagery of dreams, whereby the symbolic interiority of a hidden image, the mysterious pattern of sense, may be penetrated only by finding the correct viewing angle. In its longing for the obscure, anamorphosic focalization counts on the ex-centred spectator's capacity to approximate the remote and relate the unrelated. In that sense, shaping the Count's great dreaming by means of a polyphony of oneiric subjects and states and a heteroglossia of remote contexts and other people's stories and lyrical contemplations suggests Sumatraism as a chronotope, as the idea that there is universal connectedness and harmony in the world. The idea of Sumatraist connections informs both the understanding of the opera libretto's inter-textuality (along the lines of the quotation-collage form of the cento, the literary genre) and the arc of association that the composer draws in harmonic-motivic terms as well, in order to produce a special nexus of music-dramatic narration and presentation. In that Sumatraist inter-textual nexus, other people's stories and lyrical contemplations, qua manifestations of a collective consciousness, are deepened by means of a collectively unconscious (archetypal) perspective of a mythical, allegorical, and phantasmagorical dance-pantomime procession, as yet another oneiric form, whose typical Dionysian sequence, intoxicatio-phalophoria-sparagmos, affirms not only the theatrical model of anamorphosic doubling and Sumatraist connections, but also a unique theme in this operatic narrative - transcending sacrifice, tribulation, and death in a foreign land by means of the regenerative power of collective (historical and cultural) memory.

Assessing the effects of meditation on dream imagery, depression and anxiety

This study utilized both quantitative and qualitative statistical methods to examine dreams in 22 University students and the effects of meditation on waking day depression levels (BDI), trait anxiety levels (BAI-T) and dream imagery. Results are consistent with previous research in that mood levels changed over the course of the meditation period, specifically, moods benefit from meditation. Specific dream imagery correlated with both depression and anxiety scores, such as scene changes and animals in dreams. There were multiple significant correlations found between dream content and discoveries before and after meditation. This research illustrates that meditation affects dream imagery and mood. Implications for future research are discussed as well as applications of dream work and meditation in applied practice.

Ontogenetic patterns in the dreams of women across the lifespan.

The present study supports and extends previous research on the developmental differences in women's dreams across the lifespan. The participants included 75 Canadian women in each of 5 age groups from adolescence to old age including 12-17, 18-24, 25-39, 40-64, and 65-85, totaling 375 women. One dream per participant was scored by two independent judges using the method of content analysis. Trend analysis was used to determine the ontogenetic pattern of the dream content categories. Results demonstrated significant ontogenetic decreases (linear trends) for female and familiar characters, activities, aggression, and friendliness. These patterns of dream imagery reflect the waking developmental patterns as proposed by social theories and recognized features of aging as postulated by the continuity hypothesis. Limitations and suggestions for future research including the examining of developmental patterns in the dreams of males are discussed.

Evaluating mood fluctuation and dream imagery in recovering addicts

Addiction can lead to a plethora of health, social and economical problems. Substances are used for mood regulation, and therefore, waking day mood is extremely important during recovery of alcohol and drug addiction. The current study examined the effects of meditation on anxiety and depression levels. All participants were male, and currently in treatment programs or early stages of recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. Participants were tested for anxiety and depression and were asked to provide a recent dream, prior and post to participating in the intervention. Dreams were scored using Hall and Van de Castle guidelines for scoring imagery. Results are consistent with previous research in that anxiety and depression levels changed over the course of the meditation period. Implications for future research are discussed as well as applications of meditation in clinical and applied practice.

Visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease: theoretical models.

One of the most challenging tasks in neuroscience is to be able to meaningfully connect information across the different levels of investigation, from molecular or structural biology to the resulting behavior and cognition. Visual hallucinations are a frequent occurrence in Parkinson's disease and significantly contribute to the burden of the disease. Because of the widespread pathological processes implicated in visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease, a final common mechanism that explains their manifestation will require an integrative approach, in which consideration is taken across all complementary levels of analysis. This review considers the leading hypothetical frameworks for visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease, summarizing the key aspects of each in an attempt to highlight the aspects of the condition that such a unifying hypothesis must explain. These competing hypotheses include implications of dream imagery intrusion, deficits in reality monitoring, and impairments in visual perception and attention.

Comparing the Effects of Real Versus Simulated Violence on Dream Imagery

Participants in the current study were 75 males, including 25 Canadian soldiers, 25 heavy gamers who play military based video games such as "Call of Duty," and a control group comprised of 25 males. One dream per participant was analyzed using Hall and Van de Castle content analysis guidelines, including aggression, threat, and previously established scales for intensity of aggression and emotion. The dreams of soldiers had a higher frequency of both aggression and threat, and were also more intense in aggression and emotion than both the heavy gamers and the controls. These findings suggest that exposure to real life violence and threat (as well as the emotional significance of the experience) is more frequently incorporated into dream imagery than simulated or virtual threat. Limitations and directions for future studies are discussed.

Examining the Storytelling Method of Dream Interpretation with Canadian Soldiers

The current study extended previous research on the content of the dreams of Canadian soldiers to the discovery obtained from the dreams. Participants included 25 Canadian male soldiers with operational experience in Afghanistan as well as an age and gender matched control group of 25 Canadian male civilians. Each participant filled out The Storytelling Method worksheet, and discovery passages were coded following Hall and Van de Castle content analysis guidelines. Many significant relationships were found among discovery categories for soldiers. Categories of discovery from the dream were significantly different between soldiers and civilians and support the continuity hypothesis, as was found in previous research with dream imagery. As expected, soldiers had discovery relating to specific events from tours overseas as well as much more discovery about the past when compared to civilians. Years of service in the military was also correlated with relevant discovery categories for soldiers. Limitations as well as future directions for dream interpretation techniques with soldiers are discussed.

Commentary on "Spiritual and religious imagery in dreams: A cross cultural analysis"

Commentary on "Spiritual and religious imagery in dreams: A cross cultural analysis"

Does REM mentation reflect emotional memory? Assessing dreams with a modified Emotional Stroop Task

Previous research has found evidence of relationships among sleep states and memory sources. However, the use of text-analysis of dream reports limits the validity of measures of emotion. In order to determine whether dreams reflect emotionally significant memories, a new technique for measuring the emotional significance of dream imagery to the dreamer was designed (using a modified emotional Stroop task). Results support the idea that sleep mentation imagery (most likely from REM) may reflect emotional memory, and suggest that modified cognitive tasks (such as the Emotional Stroop) may serve as novel methodological approaches for studying sleep mentation.

Disturbed dreaming during the third trimester of pregnancy

ObjectiveThe majority of women develop sleep impairments during pregnancy, but alterations in dream experiences remain poorly understood. This study aimed to assess prospectively and comparatively the recall of dreaming and of disturbed dreaming in late pregnancy. MethodsFifty-seven nulliparous, third-trimester pregnant women (mean age±SD, 28.7±4.06years) and 59 non-pregnant controls (mean age±SD, 26.8±4.21years) completed demographics and psychological questionnaires. A 14-day prospective home log assessed sleep and dream characteristics and the Sleep Disorders Questionnaire measured retrospective dream and disturbed dream recall. ResultsEven though pregnant and non-pregnant women showed similar prospective dream recall (P=0.47), pregnant women reported prospectively more bad dreams (P=0.004). More pregnant women (21%) than non-pregnant women (7%) reported a nightmare incidence exceeding moderately severe pathology (>1/week) (P=0.03). Pregnant women also reported overall lower sleep quality (P=0.007) and more night awakenings (P=0.003). Higher prospective recall of bad dreams (r=−0.40, P=0.002) and nightmares (r=−0.32, P=0.001) both correlated with lower sleep quality in pregnant women. ConclusionsLate pregnancy is a period of markedly increased dysphoric dream imagery that may be a major contributor to impaired sleep at this time. Further polysomnographic assessments of pregnant women are needed to clarify relationships between sleep and disturbed dream production in this population.

Temporal and Sensory Experiences in the Dreams of Sighted and Congenital Blind Individuals

Dreams compose a unique state of consciousness with information related to people we know (Kahn et al., 2000), events that happened (Nielsen & Stenstrom, 2005), and future outcomes (MacDuffie & Mashour, 2010). During sleep, however, the dimensions of future, past, and present are believed not to be perceptible due to the deactivation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) that leads to decreased functioning of working memory (Voss et al., 2009). The dreamer, therefore, is considered to be “offline” and “off the clock” (MacDuffie & Mashour, 2010). However, researchers support that the brain is not restricted to silence but rather is prone to hyperassociations that may lead to retrieval of fragmented memories and unstructured recombination of those when dreaming. It has been reported that 65% of the context we experience in dreams is derived from past memories (Fosse et al., 2003), but the chronological event order is fragmented. The question arising, therefore, is how exactly is time experienced in dreams?Events in dreams, apart from the time dimension, also involve rich sensory experiences in the absence of known external stimuli. A series of studies report that sensory imagery in dreams is mainly visual for sighted individuals, whereas in congenital blind individuals the visual experiences are replaced with the senses of sound, smell, touch, and taste (Bulkeley, 2009). However, previous studies are often limited by small sample sizes and measurements limited to word search. Most importantly, previous studies on the sensory experiences in dreams are limited on the use of the Aristotelian theory of the five basic senses, whereas current research supports the existence of at least nine senses. In the present study, we investigate more systematically the temporal references (never examined to-date) and the sensory experiences of dreamers. We analyzed a set of dream reports from the DreamBank database (Schneider & Domhoff, 1999) of sighted and congenitally blind individuals. The analysis was done, not through simple word searches, but with the use of a custom-made linguistic scheme and human annotation through the Callisto annotation tool. The analysis included the following five levels: space, time (age, order, duration-long, short, frequency, and time point-past, future, present), emotion (fear, anger, sadness, love, joy, and surprise), action, and unity (semantic link between any of the previously mentioned levels). Using this scheme, we were able to derive the type and frequency of temporal and sensory references used during dreams and compare the possible links between time, space, emotion, and action in dreams and those known from perceptual (waking) literature.

Resting brain activity varies with dream recall frequency between subjects.

Dreaming is still poorly understood. Notably, its cerebral underpinning remains unclear. Neuropsychological studies have shown that lesions in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and/or the white matter of the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) lead to the global cessation of dream reports, suggesting that these regions of the default mode network have key roles in the dreaming process (forebrain 'dream-on' hypothesis). To test this hypothesis, we measured regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) using [(15)O]H2O positron emission tomography in healthy subjects with high and low dream recall frequencies (DRFs) during wakefulness (rest) and sleep (rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, N2, and N3). Compared with Low recallers (0.5 ± 0.3 dream recall per week in average), High recallers (5.2 ± 1.4) showed higher rCBF in the TPJ during REM sleep, N3, and wakefulness, and in the MPFC during REM sleep and wakefulness. We demonstrate that the resting states of High recallers and Low recallers differ during sleep and wakefulness. It coheres with previous ERP results and confirms that a high/low DRF is associated with a specific functional organization of the brain. These results support the forebrain 'dream-on' hypothesis and suggest that TPJ and MPFC are not only involved in dream recall during wakefulness but also have a role in dreaming during sleep (production and/or encoding). Increased activity in the TPJ and MPFC might promote the mental imagery and/or memory encoding of dreams. Notably, increased activity in TPJ might facilitate attention orienting toward external stimuli and promote intrasleep wakefulness, facilitating the encoding of the dreams in memory.

Ontology and Narrative Technique in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled

The Unconsoled (1995), Kazuo Ishiguro's fourth novel, received decidedly mixed reviews at first, some reviewers declaring it a masterpiece, others a failure, but all agreeing that it is a deeply enigmatic work. (1) The story is unmistakably dreamlike, but readers are puzzled about the ontological status of events narrated: is the narrator, Ryder, literally dreaming? Does he suffer from amnesia, dementia, or some other mental disability? Does he inhabit some alternate reality, and if so, of what sort? The explanations that Ishiguro himself has offered to interviewers address these questions but have failed to settle them unambiguously. Critics have found it notoriously difficult to formulate even the most basic description of the plot without distorting it. Natalie Reitano, for instance, describes Ryder as beset by an amnesia he barely acknowledges (361), and Barry Lewis begins his plot description, Ryder, an internationally acclaimed concert pianist, is the victim of an inexplicable amnesia. He arrives on a Tuesday at an unnamed town, somewhere in the heart of Europe, without a schedule. But this is not just another venue on his tour: it is the home of his partner, Sophie, and child, Boris, facts that have curiously slipped his mind. (104) But these descriptors require qualification. If Ryder is simply a victim of amnesia, why does Sophie's father, Gustav, not recognize him? And if he has lived with Sophie in this town (and at one point he has vague memories of their apartment [283-84]), why is he known only by reputation to the musical elite of the town who have invited him to perform? In the three-stage argument that follows, I first address what has been the major interpretive puzzle about this novel, namely the ontological status of its characters and events. In my view, the events are not those of a proper dream to be related to some ulterior reality; rather, they belong to a world in which events and the main character's psychological reactions operate as they do in a dream, but which is itself the ultimate reality. The second section discusses the narrative challenges of describing such a dreamworld and the techniques of oneiric realism which the author has devised to meet those challenges. The final section argues that in this narrative mode the concept of narratorial consistency and reliability as well as the moral responsibility of the characters must be reexamined and explains why this mode is particularly well suited to Ishiguro's stated intentions in the novel. Ontology in The Unconsoled The dreamlike quality of The Unconsoled has naturally invited psychoanalytic interpretations. Since Freud, literature and film have created a genre of works whose plots include some act of detection involving the discovery of an amnesiac's identity and personal history through the interpretation of dreams. Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound is a paradigm case: in this film Gregory Peck plays an amnesiac who has reason to believe that he has committed a murder; Ingrid Bergman is a psychiatrist who discovers by interpretation of one of his dreams that he is innocent and that he instead suffers from a guilt complex deriving from the repressed memory of a childhood accident that killed his brother. Her interpretation consists of identifying events in the amnesiac's real life corresponding to their coded counterparts in the dream imagery and, on the basis of this encryption, diagnosing her patient's psychological affliction. Similarly, readers of The Unconsoled repeatedly search for some reality behind the dreamlike surface of the plot. An early reviewer says, For as the tale progresses Mr. Ishiguro artfully points to the fact that alongside the dream-story of Ryder's European sojourn exists another story, Ryder's real story. While Ryder grapples with the complications of his schedule, Sophie and Boris, incidental characters--the daughter and grandson of the hotel porter--impinge on Ryder's attention until it slowly becomes evident that they are not wholly unfamiliar to him, that they are, in fact, his wife and child. …

The imagery of a dream in Heo, Gyun’s literature and the meaning -Focused on Seongsobubugo

The imagery of a dream in Heo, Gyun’s literature and the meaning -Focused on Seongsobubugo

Truthful Fictions: How Dreams Can Help You Write

This article makes a case for recording and using dreams in the teaching of writing. Calling on some well-known statements of Freud and on some recent research, I attempt to show how dreams can provide writers with a route to their unconscious. I also illustrate the role of dreams in furnishing writers with inspiration and source material. I provide examples of writing, both my own poems and extracts from the work of Coleridge, Byatt, Kafka, Blanchot and Murakami amongst others, to show how dreams, the experience of dreaming and dream-like imagery have been used successfully in literature.

Dreams are made of memories, but maybe not for memory

Llewellyn's claim that rapid eye movement (REM) dream imagery may be related to the processes involved in memory consolidation during sleep is plausible. However, whereas there is voluntary and deliberate intention behind the construction of images in the ancient art of memory (AAOM) method, there is a lack of intentionality in producing dream images. The memory for dreams is also fragile, and dependent on encoding once awake.

Can we still dream when the mind is blank? Sleep and dream mentations in auto-activation deficit

Bilateral damage to the basal ganglia causes auto-activation deficit, a neuropsychological syndrome characterized by striking apathy, with a loss of self-driven behaviour that is partially reversible with external stimulation. Some patients with auto-activation deficit also experience a mental emptiness, which is defined as an absence of any self-reported thoughts. We asked whether this deficit in spontaneous activation of mental processing may be reversed during REM sleep, when dreaming activity is potentially elicited by bottom-up brainstem stimulation on the cortex. Sleep and video monitoring over two nights and cognitive tests were performed on 13 patients with auto-activation deficit secondary to bilateral striato-pallidal lesions and 13 healthy subjects. Dream mentations were collected from home diaries and after forced awakenings in non-REM and REM sleep. The home diaries were blindly analysed for length, complexity and bizarreness. A mental blank during wakefulness was complete in six patients and partial in one patient. Four (31%) patients with auto-activation deficit (versus 92% of control subjects) reported mentations when awakened from REM sleep, even when they demonstrated a mental blank during the daytime (n = 2). However, the patients' dream reports were infrequent, short, devoid of any bizarre or emotional elements and tended to be less complex than the dream mentations of control subjects. The sleep duration, continuity and stages were similar between the groups, except for a striking absence of sleep spindles in 6 of 13 patients with auto-activation deficit, despite an intact thalamus. The presence of spontaneous dreams in REM sleep in the absence of thoughts during wakefulness in patients with auto-activation deficit supports the idea that simple dream imagery is generated by brainstem stimulation and is sent to the sensory cortex. However, the lack of complexity in these dream mentations suggests that the full dreaming process (scenario, emotions, etc.) require these sensations to be interpreted by higher-order cortical areas. The absence of sleep spindles in localized lesions in the basal ganglia highlights the role of the pallidum and striatum in spindling activity during non-REM sleep.

A new method of dream analysis congruent with contemporary counseling approaches

Dream analysis appears to deepen and accelerate the psychotherapeutic process, but it is not widely employed in modern practice. This may be due, in part, to the belief that the value of a dream lies in the analysis of its visual content, and that reflective awareness, volition, and personal responsibility––qualities valued highly by non-psychodynamic therapies––are presumed to be lacking in most dreams. While modern research has largely overturned this view, it may still impede the adoption of dream analysis by modern psychotherapists. Add to that a psychotherapist’s lack of training and concomitant discomfort with his or her own dreams and it is no surprise that dream work utilization remains low. Drawing on an array of theoretical, clinical, and empirical sources, this paper presents a view of normal dreaming as an interactive process between the dreamer and the dream imagery, and views the dream outcome as a co-determined or co-created experience. By shifting the focus in dream analysis away from content to interactive process, a counselor view the dream in such a way as to support the goals of contemporary therapy. By adopting this paradigm, he or she can assist clients in discerning the dream ego’s responses to the dream content, and evaluate how these responses influence the overall experience and, by implication, parallel waking relationships. Such an approach is congruent with the client-centered, competency-based aims of many schools of modern therapy, and thus may result in a more widespread adoption of dream analysis by psychotherapists. The author presents a case example of employing an approach to dream analysis consistent that is congruent with the goals of many of the schools of modern psychotherapy.