Preliminary description of a self-similarity phenomenon in the connection patterns of dreams

Barcaro U., Rizzi P.

Text analysis  General Psychology  Cognitive science  Self-similarity 

The objective of the research was to recognize and describe a phenomenon of self-similarity in dreams, specifically in the connection patterns of dreams: These patterns were obtained by means of a linguistic analysis of data including dream reports and associations provided by the dreamer. Dreams of four patients in therapy, three for each patient, were considered. It was found that a well-defined pattern (Basic Pattern) existed at three levels: links among dream sources of a dream, connections among source clusters of a dream, and connections among different dreams of a same patient. This self-similarity pattern was meaningfully interpretable at all the three levels. Considering the small number of patients, the description and interpretation of the results should be viewed as only preliminary. However, a minimum value for the occurrence frequency of the observed phenomenon can be given with good statistical significance.

Source: Dreaming (N.Y.N.Y.) 20 (2010): 136–148. doi:10.1037/a0019241

Publisher: American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., Stati Uniti d'America

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