Anomalous Patterns in Dream Content

Abstract This chapter examines the dream journals of the seven main figures, looking for unusual and anomalous features of dream content. Whereas the previous chapter looked at the common patterns of dreaming, this one focuses on the patterns that stand out as uncommon and distinctive to the individual dreamer. Included is a discussion of the continuity hypothesis and the idea that patterns in dream content are accurate reflections of people’s emotional concerns in waking life. The continuity hypothesis is balanced here with an appreciation for discontinuities in dream content, features that can reflect special instances of personal meaning and creative imagination. Several experiments in “blind analysis” are described, in which word-usage frequencies are used to make inferences about the individual’s waking-life concerns.