Abstract
Dream characters continue their enduring presence in dreams in general as the prevalent feature of dreaming consciousness. The present work focuses on non-lucid problem-solving dreams, and dream characters’ types of involvement and range of their relational capacities. The analysis of 979 cross-cultural problem-solving dreams using the method of grounded theory yielded 56 exemplary dreams. From the perspective of cross-state consciousness, the tentative explanatory frameworks include attained waking-life relational schemas, habitual or emerging patterns of organizing inner experiences in distress, and potential reliance on adaptive involuntary homeostatic mechanisms. The discussion of results centers on dream characters’ positive and negative involvements in dreamers’ portrayals of family constellations, and dreamers’ reactions and responses to dream characters’ experiencing problems separately from the dreamer and together with the dreamer. In terms of relational capacities, dream characters display beneficence toward the dreamer in the form of kindness, helpful intentions, and behaviors, or they instigate problems for the dreamers and display injurious and harmful attitudes, intentions, or behaviors. Limitations of the study include a study sample from highly motivated dreamers. Further research might focus on similarities or differences in dream characters’ involvement in problematic situations dreamers experience during lucid dreaming.
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Notes
Italicized, by the present author, for emphasis in relationship to current subject matter.
As I indicated previously (e. g., Kozmová 2008, 2017c), because the experiences in the dreams are predominantly active and the analysis of the dreams is also an active process (e.g., dreamers think, act, and dream characters behave, etc.), the author presents the dream characters’ activities in the vivid narrative present tense. This type of description is in contrast to reports of results in the past tense.
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The precursor of the present article entitled “Review of Varieties of Dream Characters’ Presence in Non-Lucid Dreams” (Kozmová 2017a) was published in Activitas Nervosa Superior, 59(2), 37–42, and it preceded the present research. The author presented the results of the present research at the conference titled Harvard Medical School Psychiatry Research Day, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, April 12, 2017. The subsequent paper entitled “Dream Characters’ Types of Involvement and Range of Relational Capacities in Non-Lucid Problem-Solving Dreams, Part 1” was published in Activitas Nervosa Superior, 59(3), 91–105. The current paper continues with a discussion of results, limitations of study, and suggestions for further research.
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Kozmová, M. Dream Characters’ Types of Involvement and Range of Relational Capacities in Non-Lucid Problem-Solving Dreams (Part 2). Act Nerv Super 60, 48–58 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41470-018-0020-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41470-018-0020-9