Dream Study Intro -
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As part of a 38-question sleep and dream interview, 109 participants were asked “Can you describe the very first dream you ever remember having?” (Bulkeley, Broughton, Broughton, Sanchez, & Stiller, 2005). Eighty-five participants’ (15 to 88 years of age; 51 females, 34 males) dream descriptions regarding the above question were retained for content analysis using the Hall and Van de Castle coding system (1966); the remaining participants could not remember a dream from before age 12 or supplied no first dream. These Earliest Remembered Dreams (ERD’s) were sorted into one of seven motif categories, corresponding to the theoretical constructs of Freud (wish fulfillment), Jung (Titanic dreams: viewed from a disembodied perspective, the dream is immense and powerful, like the Titans of Greek mythology), Revonsuo (threat simulation), as well as manifest content features (misfortune, family, mystical, or flying). Dreams were also divided by two polar theme spectrums: bad or good dreams and real versus fantasy.
By consensus of three coders, the most frequent motif category was “threat simulation,” of which 34.5% of the dreams fell (35.3% of females. 33.3% of males). Family was the second most common motif for females (21.6%), and an additional 11.8% were placed in both misfortune and Titanic. Male’s second most frequent motif was Titanic, at 30.3%. When the entire group had threat simulation dreams combined with the family motif (in which all except one dream were decidedly negative), misfortune, and Titanic dreams (almost all in this collection being associated with bad feelings), three quarters of the ERDs were negatively themed. Flying and mystical dreams tended to be placed within the positive and fantasy quadrant, while most threat simulation, misfortune and family ERDs were judged to be realistic. |