Survey and Content Analysis of Dreams in Different Human Constitutional Types (Prakrti)

摘要

Ayurveda, the indigenous medicine in India, contends that dream reflects a person's constitutional type viz. prakrti. Prakrti is expressed as predominance of one or two of the three dosa viz. vata, pitta and kapha. Study was conducted in a sample of healthy adults of general population of Kerala, India between the age group 20-50 years with the objective of examining whether various aspects of 'prakrti' are reflected in dreams. Content analysis of 398 dreams of 38 individuals using select variables from the Hall-Van de Castle empirical scales and comparison with Prakrti aspects described in classical Ayurvedic texts had shown that prakrti is reflected in dreams with respect to dreaming activity, visual images, characters and setting. Findings must be considered tentative because of the methodological and statistical shortcomings that would have to be answered with studies of larger samples.