Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-23T06:22:25.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dream content and daytime attitudes in anxious and calm women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

M. Lourdes Felix Gentil  and
Malcolm Lader
M. Lourdes Felix Gentil
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychopharmacology Section, Institute of Psychiatry, London
Malcolm Lader*
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychopharmacology Section, Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
2Address for correspondence: Dr Malcolm Lader, Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Twenty female anxious neurotic patients were compared with 25 normal female volunteers, divided into a low anxious normal and a high anxious group, with respect to dream report content. Dream reports were analysed using an objective and reliable method and were correlated with the day-time attitudes of the subjects measured by Semantic Differential techniques.

Anxiety levels influenced both dream reporting and dream content. In particular, aggression towards the dreamer was more common in the anxious patients. Significant correlations were found in all groups between dream content and daytime attitudes. The results were consistent with the ‘continuity’ hypothesis of dream function.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , May 1978 , pp. 297 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, A. (1959). The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler (ed. Ansbacher, H. L. and Ansbacher, R. R.), pp. 358–360. Allen and Unwin: London.Google Scholar
Alexander, F. & Wilson, G. (1935). Quantitative dream studies: a methodological attempt at a quantitative evaluation of psychoanalytical material. Psychoanalytical Quarterly 4, 371–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1969). Discussion: dreams as compared to other forms of fantasy. In Dream Psychology and the New Biology of Dreaming (ed. Kramer, M.), pp. 373–376. Charles C. Thomas: Springfield, Illinois.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Laude, R. & Bohnert, M. (1974). Ideational components of anxiety neurosis. Archives of General Psychiatry 31, 319–325.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1960). Separation anxiety. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 41, 89–113.Google ScholarPubMed
Breger, L., Hunter, I. & Lane, R. W. (1971). The effect of stress on dreams. Psychological Issues Monograph 27, vol. 7, no. 3.Google Scholar
Brenneis, B. C. (1975 a). Developmental aspect of aging in women – a comparative study of dreams. Archives of General Psychiatry 32, 429–435.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brenneis, B. C. (1975 b). Ego modalities in the manifest dreams of male and female chicanos. Psychiatry 38, 172–184.Google Scholar
Carrington, P. (1972). Dreams and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 26, 343–350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dallet, J. (1973). Theories of dream function. Psychological Bulletin 9, 408–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desroches, H. F. & Kaiman, B. D. (1964). The relationship between dream recall and symptoms of emotional instability. Journal of Clinical Psychology 20, 350–352.Google Scholar
Foulkes, D. (1964). Theories of dream formation and recent studies of sleep consciousness. Psychological Bulletin 62, 236–247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foulkes, D. & Rechtschaffen, A. (1964). Presleep determinants of dream content: effects of two films. Perceptual and Motor Skills 19 (mon. suppl. 5), 983–1005.Google Scholar
Foulkes, D. & Vogel, G. (1965). Mental activity at sleep onset. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 70, 231–243.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1900). The Interpretation of Dreams. Standard edition, vols. 4–5.Google Scholar
Gaillard, J.-M. & Phelippeau, M. (1977). Analysis of dream contents by scaled and rated measurements. Psychological Medicine 7, 275–282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giora, Z. (1974). What a dream is. British Journal of Medical Psychology 47, 283–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleser, G. C. & Gottschalk, L. A. (1961). Gottschalk-Gleser anxiety scale. Archives of General Psychiatry 5, 593–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodenough, D. R., Witkin, H. A., Koulack, D. & Cohen, D. H. (1975). The effects of stress films on dream affect and on respiration and eye movement activities during REM sleep. Psychophysiology 12, 313–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, R., Pearlman, C., Fingar, F., Kantrowitz, J. & Kawlich, S. (1970). The effects of dream deprivation: implications for a theory of the psychological function of dreaming. British Journal of Medical Psychology 43, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grieser, C., Greenberg, C. & Jarrison, H. (1972). The adaptive function of sleep: the differential effects of sleep and dreaming on recall. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 80, 280–286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hall, C. S. & Nordby, V. J. (1972). The Individual and his Dreams. New American Library: New York.Google Scholar
Hall, C. S. & Van de Castle, R. L. (1966). The Content Analysis of Dreams. Appleton-Century-Crofts: New York.Google Scholar
Handal, P. J. & Rychlak, J. F. (1971). Curvilinearity between dream content and death anxiety and the relationship of death anxiety to repression-sensitization. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 77, 11–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendall, M. G. (1948). Rank Correlation Methods. C. Griffin & Co.: London.Google Scholar
Konninck, J. M. & Koulack, D. (1975). Dream content and adaptation to a stressful situation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 84, 250–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramer, M. (1970). Manifest dream content in normal and psychopathologic states. Archives of General Psychiatry 22, 149–159.Google Scholar
Kramer, M. & Roth, T. (1975). Dreams and dementia: a laboratory exploration of dream recall and dream content in chronic brain syndrome patients. International Journal of Aging and Human Development 6, 169–178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kramer, M., Roth, T. & Palmer, T. (1976). The psychological nature of the ‘REM’ dream. I. A comparison of the REM dream report and T.A.T. stories. Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa 1, 128–136.Google Scholar
Lader, M. (1972). The nature of anxiety. British Journal of Psychiatry 121, 481–491.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maxwell, A. E. (1961). Analysing Qualitative Data. Methuen: London.Google Scholar
Roubicek, J. (1969). Anxiety and higher nervous functions. In Studies of Anxiety (ed. Lader, M. H.), pp. 21–25. British Journal of Psychiatry Special publication no. 3. Royal Medico-Psychological Association: London.Google Scholar
Schonbar, R. A. (1965). Differential dream recall as a component of ‘life style’. Journal of Consulting Psychology 29, 468–474.Google Scholar
Sheppard, E. & Saul, L. J. (1965). An approach to a systematic study of ego function. Psychoanalytical Quarterly 27, 237–245.Google Scholar
Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L. & Lushene, R. E. (1970). Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Self-Evaluation Questionnaire). Consultant Psychologist Press: Palo Alto, California.Google Scholar
Starker, S. (1973). Aspects of inner experience: autokinesis, daydreaming, dream recall and cognitive style. Perceptual and Motor Skills 36, 663–673.Google Scholar
Taub, J. M. (1971). Dreams following afternoon naps and nocturnal sleep. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 78, 229–231.Google Scholar
Ullman, M. (1959). The adaptive significance of the dream. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 129, 144–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van de Castle, R. L. & Holloway, J. (1971). Dreams of depressed patients, non-depressed patients and normals (abstract). Psychophysiology 7, 300–301.Google Scholar
Winget, C. & Farrell, R. (1972). A comparison of dreams of homosexual and non-homosexual males (abstract). Psychophysiology 9, 115–116.Google Scholar
Witkin, H. A. (1969). Influencing dream content. In The Dream Psychology and the New Biology of Dreaming (ed. Kramer, M.), pp. 285–334. Charles C. Thomas: Springfield, Illinois.Google Scholar