Dream content analysis of male schizophrenic patients.
Milton Kramer, John Trinder, Thomas Roth
Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal 1972 DOI: 10.1177/07067437720176s237 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Male paranoid schizophrenic patients and male college students |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Keywords | Humans Tranquilizing agents Diagnosis, differential Social behavior Interpersonal relations Dreams Paranoid disorders Schizophrenia Remission, spontaneous Male |
| Key findings | Dream report content differed between male paranoid schizophrenics and male college students, supporting the first hypothesis, but did not change significantly with psychological improvement in the patients, failing to support the second hypothesis. The authors suggest the null result may relate to the small number of content items and insufficiently different psychological states. Dream reports suggested avoidance of bodily concerns and interpersonal relationships. |
Abstract
This study explored two hypotheses — that the dream report content of groups are different from each other; and that with significant psychological change in a group there will be significant alteration in their dream report content. This study supported the first hypothesis — different groups do indeed have different dream report content (male paranoid schizophrenics compared to male college students); but did not support the second hypothesis — that with significant psychological change, dream report content altered (male paranoid schizophrenics before treatment and after improvement). The failure to support the second hypothesis may be related to the small number of content items compared and to the psychological states of the patients not being sufficiently different. It was possible to extract from the dream reports some areas of concern for the male paranoid schizophrenic patient, which suggested an avoidance of and a withdrawal from bodily concerns and interpersonal relationships. If there are before and after differences in dream report content they may be mostly related to the increase of active activities relative to passive ones following improvement and to a decrease in negative statements in the dream reports.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Dreaming: a State of Consciousness with Features of Both Waking and Non-Lucid Dreaming Student volunteers trained to become lucid and signal lucidity with horizontal eye... | 2009 | Observational study | n = 6 |
| Nightmare Prevalence, Nightmare Distress, and Self-Reported Psychological Disturbance Young adults with a mean age of 20 years | 2002 | Prospective observational study | n = 116 |
| Long-term effects of extreme situational stress on sleep and dreaming Survivors of traumatic events who complained of sleep disturbances, compared with... | 1987 | Case-control study | n = 11 |
| The relationship of nightmare frequency and nightmare distress to well‐being Adults who reported dreams | 2004 | Observational cohort | n = 147 |
| Dreaming in NREM Sleep: A High-Density EEG Study of Slow Waves and Spindles Healthy human subjects | 2018 | Observational cohort | n = 14 |