G. William Domhoff

The scientific study of dreams : neural networks, cognitive development, and content analysis

The Neurocognitive Approach to Dreams Toward a Neurocognitive Model of Dreams Methodological Issues in the Study of Dream Content the Hall/Van de Castle System A New Resource For Content Analysis New Ways to Study Meaning in Dreams A Critique of Traditional Dream Theories.

A New Beginning for Empirical Dream Research

William Domhoffs The Scientific Study of Dreams breaks new ground in the field, not by proposing grandiose, premature answers to questions about the nature of dreams but rather by showing us with unprecedented clarity and scope where we have erred in the past and allowing us to start over again. In a careful, reasoned critique, Domhoff demonstrates the shortcomings of the dominant dream theories that haunted the last century. Based on a thorough examination of converging evidence from neurophysiological, cognitive, and content analysis approaches to the study of dreams, he then lays the groundwork for the construction of future theories of the dreaming process from a neurocognitive perspective. Although a new, complete theory is not presented here, its insightful and unbiased as sessment of where dream research stands at this time should make The Scientific Study of Dreams required reading for everyone interested an empirical approach to understanding dreaming. With the publication of Freuds Interpretation ofDreamsin 1900, popular thought about the nature of dreams became centered around the idea that our dreams are disguised wishes originating from unconscious influences in early childhood. Dreams allowed us to hallucinatorily gratify socially unacceptable wishes repressed in our unconscious, and the transformative process of dreamwork ensured that these themes were well enough disguised in our dream content to allow us to sleep through the night, without being startled awake. Until the early 1950s, this psychoanalytic conception dominated dream psychology and was explored largely using the same techniques of clinical observation that led Freud to the formula tion of his original theory. The modem era of empirical research on dreaming was kicked off in the 1950s with Aserinsky and Kleitmans (1953) groundbreaking discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. As a graduate student working on a summer project, Eugene Aserinsky serendipitously discovered that about every 90 min throughout the night, humans go through short periods during which their eyes dart back and forth underneath their eyelids, accompanied by dramatic increases in brain activity as measured by electroencephalography. Soon it was reported that sub jects were much more likely to report a dream when awakened from REM sleep

The Quality of the Data

There are serious obstacles to systematic studies of dream content. First, as noted in the first chapter, it is not possible to introduce stimuli that regularly produce predictable variability in dream content, so an experimental approach is not very useful. Second, not all subjects are willing or able to report dreams, raising questions about the representativeness of those subjects who do report dreams. Third, even high dream recallers do not report dreams every morning at home or every time they are awakened in a laboratory setting, raising questions about the representativeness of the dreams recalled by subjects. Fourth, variability in how dreams are collected may affect the content of the reports. Finally, there are no independent checks on the accuracy of the reports provided by subjects; elements of the dream could be omitted or changed, or the entire “dream” could be a made-up story. Given these problems, it is not surprising that many psychologists raise questions about the quality of the data used in studies of dream content.

The Continuity between Dreams and Waking Life in Individuals and Groups

In this chapter, we show that there is meaning in dreams by exploring the relationship between our dream content categories and waking thought and behavior. This is what people usually have in mind when they ask if dreams have meaning. They want to know if dreams reveal anything about a person’s psychological makeup, especially anything not previously known or understood. As should be clear by now, we do think dreams have meaning in this sense of the term. Dreams reveal people’s conceptions, concerns, and interests. It is important to understand people’s conceptions because they are one basis for their actions in the world. It is important to understand people’s preoccupations because they determine where people will expend most of their energies (Hall, 1947, 1953a).

The Scientific Study of Dream Content

The purpose of this book is to search for meaning in dreams through the quantitative study of dream content. It will do so in three senses of that elusive term. First, it will demonstrate an internal coherence or regularity in the dreams of specific groups, such as men, children, or members of hunting and gathering societies. Second, it will show there is consistency in what individuals dream about from year to year and even over decades. Third, it will reveal correspondences between dream content and waking life; more specifically, it will show a direct continuity between dream concerns and waking concerns.

Consistency and Change in Long Dream Series

The previous chapters have established the potential of our coding system in terms of its reliability and its ability to yield findings compatible with common understandings of age, gender, and cultural differences. We are not surprised by the ways children’s dream reports differ from those of adults, or men’s from women’s, nor by the cultural differences in some content categories. In a certain sense we are not enlightened by these findings, for they tell us nothing new about children, gender differences, or cross-cultural psychology. Such findings give us confidence, however, that our coding system is picking up psychologically relevant findings and therefore may lead to new and interesting findings in future studies.

The Hall/Van de Castle System of Content Analysis

The first task for a dream content coding system, as for any content analysis, is the formulation of a set of categories encompassing the relevant aspects of dream reports in a reliable and useful way. In an abstract sense, the categories in a system of classification can be either theoretical or empirical. A theoretical category is one derived from a theory of personality and applied to a dream report. For example, a category derived from Jung’s theory of archetypes or Freud’s theory of the castration complex is a theoretical category. An empirical category, on the other hand, is one developed in a trial-and-error fashion from a reading of numerous dream reports with no theoretical intentions in mind. “Friends,” “aggressive interactions,” “physical activities,” “misfortunes,” and “successes” are examples of empirical categories in the Hall/Van de Castle system.

Normative Findings on American College Students

The findings presented in this chapter are based on studies of American college students over a 45-year period. Although such findings may seem limited because most students come from a narrow age range and a small portion of the socioeconomic ladder, this is in fact the greatest strength of the findings because they are not attenuated by other variables. They provide an anchor point for investigations of the relationship of dream content to such factors as age, ethnicity, race, class, nationality, and individual differences.

The Repetition Dimension in Dreams and Waking Cognition

In this chapter, we put some of our findings into a larger context to suggest that there is an overlooked dimension, a repetition dimension, underlying much of our dreaming. We also connect the “unfinished business” driving the repetition dimension to similar findings on the content of our thoughts when our waking minds are drifting, wandering, or daydreaming.

Cross-Cultural Studies of Dream Content

In this chapter, we present findings on dream content from a wide range of other nations and cultures. Some of these cultures are very similar to the United States in level of education or degree of urbanization and industrialization. Others are preliterate in nature, including some of the smallest and least structured societies in the world. Whatever the size of the society or its material base, however, the chapter shows there are both similarities and understandable differences in the findings when compared with our norms. The chapter begins with findings from such modern nation-states as the Netherlands, Argentina, India, and Japan, and then turns to findings on dreams collected by cultural anthropologists in past decades from small-scale societies.