A protocol for eliciting dream associations oriented to the recognition of episodic dream sources

Barcaro U, Delogu A, Righi M, Virgillito A, Carboncini M C

Ontologia  General Psychology 

The use of associations with dream reports, although being diffused and greatly useful in psychotherapy, has so far played a limited role in dream research not directly finalized to therapy. On the other hand, it is difficult to investigate a basic property of dreaming, that of establishing connections, without searching for information beyond the dream report: indeed, the simplest and likely most effective way of obtaining this information consists in asking the dreamer for associations. Well-defined and rigorous methods are however necessary for research approaches which aim to achieve a better understanding of how the dreaming mind operates by processing and combining the dreamer's memory sources: we propose an experimental protocol aiming to give a contribution in this direction. This protocol consists in asking the dreamer to complete a form which has been implemented so as to make it easier to recognize the sources of single dreams and to describe the link patterns among the sources; this form has been oriented to the identification of episodic sources, definite in space and time. To be more effective, the method takes advantage of the presence of a researcher while the dreamer is completing the form: the terms of the interaction between dreamer and researcher are subjected to marked restrictions and rigorously defined. The protocol was applied to a homogeneous group of participants; the observed link patterns presented interesting phenomena, whose occurrence was characterized by high statistical significance.

Source: DREAMING, vol. 26 (issue 1), pp. 79-93

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