Comparing personal insight gains due to consideration of a recent dream and consideration of a recent event using the Ullman and Schredl dream group methods

摘要

There have been reports and claims in the psychotherapeutic literature that theudconsideration of recent dreams can result in personal realizations and insight. Thereudis theoretical support for these claims from work on rapid eye movement (REM)udsleep having a function of the consolidation of emotional memories and the creativeudformation of connections between new and older memories. To investigate theseudclaims, 11 participants (10 females, one male) reported and considered a recentudhome dream in a dream discussion group that following the “Appreciating dreams”udmethod of Montague Ullman. The group ran 11 times, each participant attending andudparticipating once. A further nine participants (seven females, two males) reportedudand considered a recent home dream in a group that followed the “Listening to theuddreamer” method of Michael Schredl. The two studies each had a control conditionudwhere the participant also reported a recent event, the consideration of which followedudthe same technique as was followed for the dream report. Outcomes of the discussionsudwere assessed by the participants on the Gains from Dream Interpretation (GDI) scale,udand on its counterpart, the Gains from Event Interpretation scale. High ratings on theudGDI experiential-insight subscale were reported for both methods, when applied touddreams, and for the Ullman method Exploration-Insight ratings for the dream conditionudwere significantly higher than for the control event condition. In the Ullman method,udself-assessment of personal insight due to consideration of dream content was alsoudsignificantly higher than for the event consideration condition. The findings support theudview that benefits can be obtained from the consideration of dream content, in termsudof identifying the waking life sources of dream content, and because personal insightudmay also occur. To investigate the mechanisms for the findings, the studies should beudrepeated with REM and non-REM dream reports, hypothesizing greater insight from theudformer.