Dream Content Corresponds With Dreamer’s Psychological Problems and Personality Structure and With Improvement in Psychotherapy: A Typology of Dream Patterns in Dream Series of Patients in Analytical Psychotherapy
Christian Rœsler
Dreaming December 1, 2018 DOI: 10.1037/drm0000092 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 15 |
| Population | Patients in analytical psychotherapy |
| Intervention | analytical psychotherapy |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | Five major dream patterns accounted for the majority of dreams, and changes in these patterns corresponded with therapeutic change. |
Abstract
This qualitative study of patients’ dreams in analytical psychotherapy using the method of Structural Dream Analysis investigated 15 cases and 202 dreams. In total, 5 major dream patterns were identified and that accounted for the majority of the dreams. The clients’ dream series were dominated by 1 or 2 repetitive patterns, which were closely connected to the psychological problems of the dreamers. In addition, typical changes in the dream series’ patterns could be identified that corresponded with therapeutic change. These findings support Jung’s theory of dreams as providing a holistic image of the dreamer’s psyche including unconscious aspects. The implications for different psychoanalytic theories of dreaming and dream interpretation are discussed as well as implications for the continuity hypothesis.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Other as a Nightmare: The Israeli-Arab Encounter as Reflected in Children's Dreams in Israel and the West Bank Jewish and Arab fifth to seventh graders living in various settings in Israel and the... | 1989 | Qualitative content analysis | n = 212 |
| Nonwaking Responses to Waking Stressors: Dreams and Nightmares1 Men from the cohort eligible for military duty during the Vietnam Conflict, varying in... | 1990 | Survey interview study | n = 442 |
| Communing with the Gods: The Dreaming Brain in Cross-cultural Perspective | 2011 | Phenomenological study | |
| Partial memory reinstatement while (lucid) dreaming to change the dream environment. Lucid dreamers | 2020 | Qualitative study | |
| Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic Global survey participants | 2022 | Longitudinal mixed-methods study | n = 2,240 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 7
- Personality Functioning Improvement during Psychotherapy Is Associated with an Enhanced Capacity for Affect Regulation in Dreams: A Preliminary Study Brain Sciences May 11, 2024
- A New Way of Analysing Dreams on Its Profoundest Level: The Development of Motif Analysis and Phase Model (MAP) as an Extension of Structural Dream Analysis (SDA) Behavioral Sciences August 1, 2024
- Dream processes and affect regulation in psychotherapy: a longitudinal clinical case study Research in Psychotherapy Psychopathology Process and Outcome July 31, 2026
- Dreaming in Bipolar Disorders – Feasibility of the Central Image Method: A Prospective Controlled Trial Frontiers in Psychology September 2, 2024
- Synesthesia is associated with distinctive patterns in dream content. Consciousness and Cognition 2026
and 2 more in the library
Cites 2
- The continuity and discontinuity between waking and dreaming: A Dialogue between Michael Schredl and Allan Hobson concerning the adequacy and completeness of these notions heiDOK (Heidelberg University) 2011
- Examining dream content and meaning of dreams with English and Italian versions of the storytelling method of dream interpretation heiDOK (Heidelberg University) 2012