Dreaming and the Impossible Art of Translation

This essay identifies translation both as an historically core metaphor in Euro-American dream theory and as a contemporary ally for dream teaching and research. It also traces the mutuality of translators' reliance on Freud, Jung, and other dream theorists in their metaphorical expression of the art and craft of translation. The sustained interaction of oneiric and linguistic metaphor-making stems from the fact that virtually all of our knowledge about dreams has been mediated through language and that all dream reporting is itself an act of intersemiotic translation. In an attempt to stimulate further comparative inquiry, the overlapping concerns and often uncanny affinities between language/translation studies and dream/interpretation studies are presented.     

Personality and Dreaming: Boundary Structure and Dream Content

Prior studies indicate that a personality dimension reflecting thin versus thick boundaries is related to global ratings of dream vividness, amount of emotion, and amount of interaction. In the present study, these relationships were examined by relating scores from the Boundary Questionnaire ( Hartmann, 1991) to dream content among 80 patients seen at a sleep disorders center. Thinness of boundaries was significantly correlated with dream length, vividness, amount of detail, and amount of emotion, and showed a trend towards correlation with aggressive interaction and nightmare-likeness. When dream length was statistically controlled, the relationships between boundary structure and dream content were no longer statistically significant, although amount of emotion and amount of detail showed a trend in the original direction. A principal components analysis was used to identify three factors in the dream content data (eigenvalues > 1.0). The first factor involved dream length, vividness, detail, and emotion; the second involved love/tender interaction and sexual interaction; and the third involved aggressive interaction. Thinness of boundaries showed a significant correlation with only the first factor. We suggest that the trait continuum ranging from thick to thin boundaries is similar to the state continuum running from focused waking thought to dreaming, and that both continua refer to the same aspects of cortical activity.     

Dreaming and insomnia: Polysomnographic correlates of reported dream recall frequency.

This study assesses which polysomnographic variables are associated with changes in reported dream recall frequency in patients meeting diagnostic criteria for primary insomnia. Data analyzed included sleep latency, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, time in REM, time in sleep stages (1&2 vs. 3&4), and periodic limb movement. For the grouping meeting ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for primary insomnia, a significant decrease in dream recall was found compared to the noninsomniac group. A decline in polysomnographic sleep quality was associated with a decline in reported dream or nightmare recall frequency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The dream experience: A systematic exploration..

Reviews the book, The dream experience: A systematic exploration by Milton Kramer (see record 2007-01084-000). This book was written by an exceptional scientist and clinician and is based on 46 years of productive work in the field of dream research and sleep medicine. Milton Kramer presents some preliminary data about two patterns that describe changes in dream content over one night: the progressive-sequential dream pattern and the repetitive-traumatic dream pattern, each illustrated with an example. The first pattern reflects some kind of progression reflecting a successful coping with the problem of the first dream. The second pattern repeats one topic but without introducing successful coping strategies. Milton Kramer's book is a comprehensive overview of dream research over the last 50 years and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in pursuing this field of research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theory of Mind in Dreaming: Awareness of Feelings and Thoughts of Others in Dreams.

If the awareness of what others are thinking and the ability to attribute feelings to others characterizes both waking and dreaming consciousness, it suggests that a social species like man has a state-independent need for a theory of mind; that is, an ability to know that others have feelings. The authors performed 2 studies, the first of which consisted of 35 participants who submitted 320 dream reports containing more than 1,200 dream characters and the second consisted of 24 participants who submitted 151 dream reports with 543 dream events. Participants reported that as subjects in their own dreams they were aware that their dream characters had feelings and thoughts about them. This finding shows that awareness of what others are feeling is a robust aspect of consciousness that is maintained despite the changed chemistry and changed activation patterns of the brain's neuronal connections during dreaming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interest in dream interpretation: A gender difference.

Although several studies reported a significant effect with regard to the gender difference in an interest in dreams, the generalizability of these studies is limited because mainly students were recruited as participants. In this study, gender differences with regard to interest in dream interpretation as an indicator of interest in dreams in general have been demonstrated in a representative sample. There was, however, a significant age-gender interaction, indicating that interest in dreams might not be a potent variable for explaining gender differences in dream recall. In future studies, the course of interest in dreams over the life span and any associated gender differences should be investigated using carefully designed scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lucid Dreaming and Personality: A Replication.

This article reports an investigation of personality variables that may be associated with the reporting of lucid dreaming. The present study confirmed that lucid dreamers, both frequent and occasional (n = 26), were more internal on J. Rotter's (1966) locus of control measure and scored higher on J. Cacioppo and R. Petty's (1982) need for cognition measure than did nonlucid dreamers (n = 24). Frequent but not occasional lucid dreamers were more field independent on H. A. Witkin et al.'s (1971) Group Embedded Figures Test than the nonlucid dreamers. Need for cognition, internality on locus of control, and field independence all correlated with each other. The results can be argued to show a continuity between styles of waking and dreaming personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Polymorphism of the Serotonin Receptor Type 2A (5-HTR2A) Gene and Verbal Fluency in Normalcy and in Schizophrenia

To study the effect of the serotonergic brain system on verbal fluency (i.e., the ability to rapidly extract necessary words from the internal vocabulary), the T102C polymorphism of the serotonin receptor type 2A (5-HTR2A) gene was tested for association with verbal fluency in 108 patients with schizophrenia or disorders of the schizophrenic spectrum and 97 mentally healthy individuals. A significant association was observed only in male schizophrenics (n = 67), with homozygotes A2A2 having lower verbal fluency. The results do not support the association between the 5-HTR2A polymorphism and verbal fluency in normalcy, and agree with the assumed contribution of genotype A2A2 to the severity of schizophrenia.     

The role of mood congruency memory effects in dream recall: A pilot study.

A methodological issue in research relating daytime mood to dream content is the question of whether mood congruency effects—that is, recalling more negative events if the current mood is more negative—also play a role in the dream recall process. This study adopted an indirect approach by testing the hypothesis that interindividual differences in mood congruency effects in a memory task carried out in the daytime correlate with mood congruency effects in dream recall (recalling more negative dream emotions, as one would predict on the basis of the current stress level or overall mood state). The findings, however, did not support the hypothesis of mood congruency effects and, thus, rule out that the findings regarding the continuity hypothesis of dreaming are biased by selective recall. Studies with different methodological approaches are necessary to validate this study’s findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dreaming as Delirium: A Reply to Bert States

When analyzed from a formal mental states point of view, REM sleep dreaming evinces all four of the cardinal defining features of delirium: visual halluncinosis; disorientation; memory loss, and confabulation. This new formulation is supported by neurobiological findings at the level of neurones and neuromodulators, which indicate a dramatic shift in the balance of the same aminergic and cholinergic neuromodulatory systems that mediate delirium upon the ingestion or withdrawal of drugs that upset that balance. Convinced that all of the symptoms and signs of delirium that have been emphasized above could be the natural manifestations of hyperassociation, Bert States has challenged both the validity and heuristic value of this Dreaming as Delirium paradigm. Arguing that no natural process like dreaming can be dysfunctional, and wishing to advance the thesis that all naturally determined mental content obeys the law of associativity, States commits himself to a paradigm of interpretability which is linked to a metaphorical-analogical function of memory. States (and most other students of dreaming) have difficulty accepting my claim that discontinuity and incongruity are in a dialectical and oppositional struggle with associativity. These dissociative processes, which arise at the neuronal level described by the reciprocal interaction model, translate into the universal and generically nonsensical aspects of dream content that are explained by the paradigm of dreaming as delirium. In this essay, I urge that States and all others who share with me the fond hope of a scientifically respectable approach to the interpretation of dreams, recognize that both associativity and dissociation are hard at work in REM sleep dreaming and other autocreative states of mind. Once the both/and replaces the either/or mind set, it is possible to separate the emotionally salient signals from the cognitively disjunctive noise. The same step allows us to recognize that all complex natural systems have both functional and dysfunctional aspects and that these are sometime mutually enhancing as well as mutually entailed by the mechanisms that engender them. Turning Polonius on his head I thus suggest: Though this be method, yet there's madness in it!     

The Dream Will Tell: Militant Muslim Dreaming in the Context of Traditional and Contemporary Islamic Dream Theory and Practice.

Al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership and membership appear to have been motivated, inspired, and guided by certain dreams. Their understanding of dreams seems to draw at least partly on traditional and contemporary Islamic dream theories. If this hypothesis is correct, then there is a need for the urgent study of Islamic Jihadist political/religious conversion and guidance dreams across the Middle East. The dream-as experienced, reported, and interpreted-is now a significant aspect of the global conflict between Al-Qaeda and its associates versus the core value system of Western civilization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lucid Dreaming Treatment for Nightmares: A Series of Cases

Goal of this series of cases was to investigate lucid dreaming treatment for nightmares. Hypotheses were that lucid dreaming treatment would decrease nightmare frequency and state/trait anxiety, and improve the quality of sleep. Eight participants received a one-hour individual session, which consisted of lucid dreaming exercises and discussing possible constructive solutions for the nightmare. Nightmare frequency and sleep quality were measured by a sleep questionnaire, anxiety was measured by the Spielberger State and Trait Anxiety Inventory. At the follow-up two months later the nightmare frequency had decreased, while the sleep quality had increased slighty. There were no changes on state and trait anxiety. Lucid dreaming treatment seems to be effective in reducing nightmare frequency, although the effective factor remains unclear.     

The Words of Adolescents' Dreams: A Quantitative Analysis

This research detects the most common words recurring in 326 adolescents' dream language. The analyzed dreams have been previously recorded and then transcribed. Grouping words, we obtained the frequency of the main parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns). Among the nouns, far more frequently represented are terms that refer to important objects of an affective relation. Other significant nouns relate to objects linked to both familial and extra-familial environments. Words related to family relations declined in frequency as age increased and were substituted by terms that refer to relations among friends and to the external world and its objects. Some of these results can be usefully compared with the conclusions derived from the application of other methods of content analysis. This method using dream language analysis could be applied to research concerning dream content, also through specific dictionaries (groups of words defined and classified in relation to a certain theme).     

Media Use and Dreaming: The Relationship Among Television Viewing, Computer Game Play, and Nightmares or Pleasant Dreams.

Children (N=2,546) in a random sample of 15 secondary schools in Flanders, Belgium, completed a questionnaire about volume of television viewing, computer game playing, and nightmares and pleasant dreams related to these activities. TV content showed up frequently in nightmares for 33% of the children, and computer games were associated with nightmares in about 10% of boys and 5% of girls. About 60% of 13-year-olds and 50% of 16-year-olds reported having pleasant dreams related to TV. Computer games also appeared in pleasant dreams for a majority of 13-year-olds and a minority of 16-year-olds. Media influence on dream content was not limited to excessive media users. Concerns about the implications for the impact of media on dreams and general psychological well-being are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of 30% Oxygen Administration on Verbal Cognitive Performance, Blood Oxygen Saturation and Heart Rate

This study investigated the effect of 30% oxygen administration on verbal cognitive performance, blood oxygen saturation, and heart rate. Five male (24.6(±0.9) years) and five female (22.2(±1.9) years) college students were selected as the subjects for this study. Two psychological tests were developed to measure the performance level of verbal cognition. The experiment consisted of two runs: one was a verbal cognition task, with normal air (21% oxygen) administered and the other was with hyperoxic air (30% oxygen) administered. The experimental sequence in each run consisted of Rest 1 (1 min), Control (1 min), Task (4 min), and Rest 2 (4 min). Blood oxygen saturation and heart rate were measured throughout the four phases. The results of the verbal behavioural analysis reveal that accuracy rates were enhanced with 30% oxygen administration compared to 21% oxygen. When 30% oxygen was supplied, blood oxygen saturation was increased significantly compared to that with 21% oxygen administration, whereas heart rate showed no significant difference. Significant positive correlations were found between changes in oxygen saturation and cognitive performance. This result supports the hypothesis that 30% oxygen administration would lead to increases in verbal cognitive performance.     

Language as a community of interacting belief systems: A case study involving conduct toward self and others

Words such as selfish and altruistic that describe conduct toward self and others are notoriously ambiguous in everyday language. I argue that the ambiguity is caused, in part, by the coexistence of multiple belief systems that use the same words in different ways. Each belief system is a relatively coherent linguistic entity that provides a guide for human behavior. It is therefore a functional entity with design features that dictate specific word meaning. Since different belief systems guide human behavior in different directions, specific word meanings cannot be maintained across belief systems. Other sources of linguistic ambiguity include i) functional ambiguity that increases the effectiveness of a belief system, ii) ambiguity between belief systems that are functionally identical but historically distinct, and iii) active interference between belief systems. I illustrate these points with a natural history study of the word selfish and related words in everyday language. In general, language and the thought that it represents should be studied in the same way that ecologists study multi-species communities.