Date of Award

1982

Publication Type

Doctoral Thesis

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Psychology

Keywords

Psychology, Clinical.

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect on dreams of either a neutral day residue, or a day residue which is evocative of psychosexual conflict. Sixty male subjects divided into two groups--frequent dream recallers and infrequent dream recallers--were exposed to one of the following stimuli: (a) a neutral picture, (b) a picture which is strongly evocative of psychosexual conflict, or (c) a picture which is similar to picture "b" but which has been modified in an effort to make it less evocative. Subjects were asked to free associate to the picture and their free associations were examined for evidence of unconscious disturbance. The day following this exposure, they were asked to report a dream and to free associate to it. These dream reports were examined for evidence of primary process material, oedipal and oral conflict, and defensiveness, by means of scales adapted for this study. Analysis indicated that exposure to the neutral picture produced less evidence of oedipal and oral material in dream reports and free associations than did exposure to either of the experimental pictures. Exposure to the most provocative picture, on the other hand, produced the greatest amount of oral and oedipal material. In addition to its effect on dream reports, exposure to a provocative day residue was far more likely to produce dream recall failure in frequent recallers. Infrequent recallers were much more likely to experience dream recall failure regardless of the picture to which they were exposed. The types of defenses which subjects showed in their dream reports were also examined. It appears that infrequent recallers prefer such defenses as repression, denial and silences, while frequent recallers prefer such defenses as speech disturbances, omissions, "ahs", evaluators, and retractors. The author drew the conclusion that exposure to a disturbing day residue resulted in increased evidence in dream reports of material related to that disturbance. In addition, infrequent recallers showed much greater evidence of defensiveness in the presence of a female experimenter than did frequent recallers, resulting in a dramatic increase in forgetting of their dreams. Finally, the defenses utilized by frequent recallers differed from those of infrequent recallers, and may be related to different stages of psychological development.Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1982 .C596. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, Section: B, page: 0906. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1982.

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