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One Interpretation Doesn't Fit All
No device lets researchers probe the content of dreams while we sleep, but scientists are finding new ways to interpret dreams once we've awakened. Forget Freud's notion that dreams contain images with universal meanings (e.g., cigar=penis). A new generation of psychologists insists that dream symbols differ depending on the dreamer. In a recent study, University of Ottawa psychology professor Joseph De Koninck asked 13 volunteers to make two lists: one of details recalled from recent dreams, and another of recent events in their waking lives. When analysts were asked to match which volunteer experienced which dream, they failed. De Koninck's conclusion: Each person understands his or her dreams better than anyone else -- including traditional psychoanalysts. In a dream, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar -- or almost anything else."There's just no evidence of universal dream symbols," says De Koninck. "My advice is to throw away your dream dictionary if you really want to interpret your dreams."
Today, psychologists are applying modern technology to probe the content of dreams. Hoss uses a computer-based approach called content analysis to interpret the colors in dreams. More than 80 percent of people dream in color, he says, though only a quarter of them recall the shades the next morning. To collect data, he analyzed nearly 24,000 dreams, catalogued in two databases at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts. His study suggested that specific colors represent particular emotions (for example, red means action, excitement and desire; blue equals calmness, tranquility and harmony; black connotes fear, anxiety and intimidation).
But, as with symbols and action, one size doesn't fit all when it comes to interpretation. Every dreamer draws on a different palette to reflect personal associations. "Using color is your brain's way of painting your dreams with your emotion," says Hoss, who just published his results in Dream Language (Innersource, 2005).
Some researchers scoff at the need for computers or even therapists to interpret dreams. Psychologist Gayle Delaney, PhD, founding president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, believes that dreamers themselves are the best interpreters of their time in dreamland. She supports a "dream interview" technique, which asks people to answer a series of straightforward questions in order to gain insights into their recollections. From her office in San Francisco, Delaney uses this process to help single people analyze and better understand their romantic relationships through their dreams.
Delaney tells of one client who dreamed of her new boyfriend swimming in the ocean. Above the water, he looked like an adorable seal, but below the water he was a vicious shark. When asked about her boyfriend's personality, the woman conceded that he had a violent streak -- a fact she consciously tried to ignore. "It was clear that this woman had misgivings about a darker side to her boyfriend," says Delaney. "The dreaming mind is more insightful about the people in your life than your waking mind." The woman broke up with her boyfriend soon afterward.
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