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Theme : DreamsA Comparison of the Interpretation of Dream Series With and Without Free AssociationsWalter J. Reis
The traditional and most frequently used technique to interpret dreams since the publication of Freud's book on dreams in 1900 is to collect free associations to the dream as a whole, its parts, and the feelings in the dream. From these data the dream analysant and analyst in a cooperative enterprise try to decipher the motivational sources of the dream. While perhaps not experimentally "proven" this technique has shown its usefulness in clinical practice so repeatedly that it has become part of the working equipment of most psychotherapists, though they may differ in some details of usage. Though this technique is used widely in psychotherapy it does have certain shortcomings, especially when the objective is not psychotherapy but limited to the understanding of personality dynamics. In the latter instance, the collecting of free associations to dreams is often not economical in terms of time and effort on the part of subject and investigator since less time consuming techniques of personality diagnosis, (Rorschach, for example) are available. Another disadvantage with free association is that people vary a great deal in their aptitude for free associations. Therapists and investigators too, differ in their aptitude to elicit free associations. Thus it would be worthwhile to investigate how much can be learned about the personality of people solely from their dreams. But over and above these practical considerations the question whether dreams alone can reveal the personality of the dreamer is a significant theoretical problem. There has been in recent years a more open interest in manifest dreams as indicated by published material. Erikson's [1] approach to the manifest dream consists of a careful examination of certain formal aspects such as partial and emotional content of the manifest dream. It must be noted that the subject of the study here is the individual dream. A somewhat different approach was made by Hall [2] who studied dream series as a whole. His technique was to collect a number of dreams from subjects and then examine them as a unit, starting with a "spotlight dream" i.e., a dream with important obvious significance, and fitting the rest together in as internally consistent a picture as possible. This method is not unlike that used in putting together a jigsaw puzzle where one usually starts with a prominent piece and then fits the rest around it. The criterion is how well the pieces fit together and whether they make a meaningful picture. In this method the degree of internal consistency is the criterion of validity of the interpretation unless other data such as tests are available. The assumption underlying the acceptance of internal consistency as criterion for validity is that there is only one optimal fit which represents the correct understanding of the meaning of the dream series. Hall used in his work a fairly orthodox Freudian theoretical framework.
The subjects were 24 college students, 12 male and 12 female, who volunteered for the study. The age range was 19 through 27 for the males, 19 through 21 for the females. The mean age of the total sample was 20.7 years, being 21.5 years for the boys and 19.9 for the girls. Thirty-seven and one-half per cent of the subjects were psychology majors, 42.7% of the males and 33.3% of the females.
To demonstrate the point that global judgment of this nature can be made reliably from dream series alone as well as from dream series with free associations co-workers Lane and Johnson-Dyer were instructed in the technique of rating dream series alone and dream series with free associations respectively on this rating scale, and their ratings compared statistically with those of the writer. The results of these reliability studies are reported in the next section. Lane, who has since then received her Ph.D. in psychology, was at the time a graduate student in psychology at Western Reserve University. Johnson-Dyer was at the time an undergraduate with a major in psychology at Western Reserve University. The rating of dreams with and without free associations was done in the following manner:
The Collection of the Dream Series Since it was felt that a genuine desire to participate in the study on the part of the subjects was crucial, the enlistment of subjects was done in such a way to give the subjects a feeling of worthwhileness of their contribution. The time interval between the occurrence of the dream in each dream series and the first trial session in which the subjects learned how to free associate varied. The choice of using ten dreams rather than any other number was arbitrary. After receiving the dream series they were rated by the writer on the rating scale. The Preliminary Interview The first session at which most of the students met the investigator for the first time was dedicated to getting acquainted and learning how to free associate. The investigator conducted all interviews in a small room of his home which contained among other pieces of furniture a comfortable couch, a little table and an easy chair. For the preliminary talks the potential subject sat on the couch while the investigator faced him in the easy chair. During the period of free associations the investigator was seated behind the subject with the little table in front of him slightly to the left of the subject to permit observation of the subject. After some rapport was established, the potential subject was asked to lie down on the couch, make himself as comfortable as possible, loosen his tie, etc. He was told to relate a recent dream which he had not reported as part of the study. Most individuals complied and the dream was treated in the same fashion as described in the section on free association, except that the associations were not recorded by the investigator. In those few instances where the subject could not remember such a dream, he was asked to make one up which was then treated in the same fashion. Collection of Associations When an individual came the second time, work began in earnest. The physical setup was as described before. This time, however, the responses of the subjects were recorded by the investigator. It is not easy to describe the technique which the investigator used to evoke the associations, since a great deal consisted in an intuitive appraisal of the subject's personality in regard to where and how deep to probe. Formally, the procedure of collection of free associations consisted in the following steps: Selection of the dream to be worked on. In the course of the first rating
without free associations the dream series was studied in detail. The
dreams were then arranged more or less in the order of increasing complexity
and taken up in this order unless the subject preferred some other dream.
Greatest importance was attached to the development of self-confidence
in the dreamer's ability to interpret his dreams. This end seemed to be
served best by the order of progressively increasing complexity.
Underlying all the work with the subject was the attitude, which was carefully implanted and fostered, that he, and only he "knew," in some recess of his mind, the meaning of the dream and that he was the one to discover it. He was told that a dream is comparable to a stage production, of which he is the director, and that he was the one to answer all questions of the why and how of the production, granting that this might involve finding it out by roundabout ways. If the subject did offer an interpretation, the attitude of the investigator was one of skepticism, which was expressed as follows: "Is that what it means?" "How do you know?" "Let's see why." "Can you prove it?" The responses of the subjects to their dreams were recorded as faithfully as possible by the investigator in longhand. The recording turned out to be by far the most thorny part of the whole study. Many subjects used the sessions for discussion of their personal problems, though this had not been suggested, at least not consciously. The attitude on the part of the investigator which made subjects feel free to discuss their problems is considered a necessary condition to elicit the quality of material which the investigator wanted to and did obtain from the subject. If the investigator had indicated more or less subtly, "We have only time for dreams," or, "Let's discuss this later," it would have meant a great loss in the intensity of rapport and a concomitant reduction of the depth and meaningfulness of the material produced. After the collection of the free associations to the ten dreams, the investigator rerated the dream series on the personality scale in the light of the free associations.
Statistical Procedure The concept of reliability, as it applies to this thesis, is discussed in detail in Lane's [3] paper. We shall, therefore, be brief in our treatment. Each of the co-workers rated each case on all twenty-five ratings, i.e., they were forced to make a rating regardless of whether they felt sufficient evidence was available for a rating. The investigator rated only in those instances where he felt a rating was justified by evidence. Thus, each co-worker had on each item of the scale three choices, "a," "b," and "c," while the investigator had four choices, i.e., the same as the co-workers plus "no rating." A complete agreement between two ratings like "a"-"a," "b"-"b," or "c"-"c," was counted one point (1.00). A one step disagreement like "a"-"b," "b"-"a," "b"-"c," or "c"-"b," was counted half a point (0.50). Total disagreement like "a"-"c," or "c"-"a," was counted zero point (0.00). Table I gives the rating scale and numbers assigned to each item on the scale.
Table II: Summary of Results of Studies I, II, and III
As far as changes in the sense of addition are concerned, Study III offered opportunities for six hundred ratings (twenty-five ratings on twenty-four subjects). After reading of the dreams alone the investigator made five hundred fifty-four or 92.33 per cent of the possible ratings. After additional study of the associations he made five hundred eighty-five ratings, that is, 97.50 per cent of the possible ratings, or an addition of 5.17 per cent to the ratings made on the study of the dreams alone. This shows that after study of the free associations the judges were not able to rate many more variables than they had been rating after study of the dreams alone. If the objective of collecting free associations to dreams had been to permit more variables to be evaluated the small number of additional variables which could then be rated would not be considered a worthwhile return for the time and effort invested. The ratings do not suggest that there were systematic differences in the percentage agreements on male subjects versus female subjects either in Study II or III. Even if all the items were rated reliably, knowledge of all the ratings on a subject would not reveal enough about the individual to give the reader an adequate picture of the subjects personality. More specifically, the rating scale is not adequate to give a rounded picture on two counts:
The items on the scale do not have enough steps to permit adequate individuation. In terms of reliability it was probably a good idea to start with a three point scale, but preliminary work suggests that a five point scale may actually improve reliability. While there was good agreement between the ratings on dream series alone and those on dream series with free associations, it must not be assumed that the collection of free associations is not useful for the understanding of the personality. An infinitely richer picture of the personality, so to speak in flesh and blood, was derived after the study of the free associations. From the dreams alone, a shadowy blueprint of the personality with many ambiguities developed before the dream interpreter's eyes, while the addition of the free associations gives one the feeling of knowing the person, seeing him clearly delineated in the matrix of his environment. From the work with these dreams and associations many possibilities for future research were suggested....
It was demonstrated by the study proper (Study III) and the reliability studies (Studies I and II), (the latter carried out by two raters other than the investigator) that: (a) many ratings can be judged reliably from dream series alone; (b) many ratings can be judged reliably from dreams and free associations; (c) and many of the ratings derived from dreams series alone agreed with those derived from dreams with free associations; (d) dreams alone suggest the blueprint of the personality while free associations add the brick and mortar, so to speak. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography Erikson, E. H.: The dream specimen of psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 2:5-56, 1954. Hall, C. S.: The Meaning of Dreams. New York, Harper, 1953. Lane, Ellen: The Reliability of Personality Ratings Based on Dream Series.
Unpublished Master's thesis, Cleveland, Ohio. Department of Psychology,
Graduate School, Western Reserve University, 1951. Original address of this text : |