Browsing by Subject "Dreams"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Open Access
    The dream in terminal illness : a Jungian case study
    (1988) Welman, Mark; Faber, Phillip
    While it may be true that many of the mysteries of birth have been dispelled by modern science and medicine, death remains an enigma; the meaning of death and the question of what becomes of us after we stop functioning physically remain powerful concerns, anchored in antiquity. Nowhere are these concerns more manifest than in the care of the terminally ill. The present study, undertaken from a Jungian perspective, purports that nocturnal dream material affords a unique opportunity to explore and elucidate the psychological meaning and implications of death - to determine, in short, what death means from the point of view of the psyche rather than that of the body. In addition, the pragmatic place of dreams in counselling and caring for the terminally ill and their families will be briefly considered. In this way it is hoped that the present investigation shall serve as the impetus for further research and indeed for a shift away from the present tendency to exclude a psychological perspective in the care of dying patients. These objectives are undertaken primarily by way of a case study involving an intensive analysis of a series of dreams collected from a dying cancer patient.
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    The effects of a dreamwork technique on creative potential
    (1988) Katz, Linda; Faber, Phillip
    The aim of this study is to determine whether an awareness of unconscious processes, as elicited by a dreamwork technique, will increase creative potential. In the present investigation, 54 undergraduate students were randomly divided into three groups. Each group was tested for creativity on two measures: (1) The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and (2) The Rorschach Test (movement response). For three weeks all subjects completed a dreamwork assignment, which was systematically varied across the three levels of the independant variable. The experimental group recorded their dreams daily, and answered questions on a dreamwork questionnaire designed to stimulate associations and amplifications to dream imagery (Group A). One control group recorded their dreams and performed a logical task on their content (Group B), while the other control group collected dreams from other people, and performed the same logical task on their content (Group C). It was hypothesized that those subjects who had an opportunity to work with and amplify the unconscious imagery occurring in their dreams would be more likely to increase in their creative potential, than those subjects who did not have this opportunity. Each subject met weekly with the experimenter for supervisory and motivational purposes. At the end of the study all subjects were retested with a parallel version of the Torrance and the Rorschach. Scoring on the Torrance yielded ten different measures, and six measures on the Rorschach. Using a two-way analysis of variance of repeated measures, no significant changes occurred on the Rorschach scores, but on the Torrance Tests, highly significant changes took place in Figural measures of Fluency, Originality, Elaboration and Figural Totals, as well as highly significant increases on all four verbal measures of Fluency, Flexibility, Originality and Verbal Totals. Since no interaction occurred, t-tests were performed, to discover that the increases in creativity on the Torrance occurred not only to experimental subjects in Group A, but also to subjects in Group C. These findings are discussed in relation to previous theoretical and empirical work on the creative process, and it is suggested that the increase in creativity, as measured by a divergent thinking test battery (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking), was produced, not by the actual content of the tasks involved, but by the establishment of a problem-solving mind set.
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    An experimental and qualitative investigation of the relationship between archetypal imagery in waking fantasies and nocturnal dreams
    (1987) Faber, Phillip A; Saayman, Graham
    In On the Nature of the Psyche (1946), Jung proffers what is probably his most systematic and articulate formulation of the theory of archetypes. A pivotal role is ascribed to his clinical observations of the interrelationships between waking and nocturnal fantasy in the genesis of the theory. Fantasy-activity is conceptualised as constituting the medium par excellence through which archetypal activity is apprehended and experienced. In providing an empirical basis for archetypal theory, Jung cites his clinical observations of a decrease in the frequency of occurrence of dream material of an archetypal nature in association with the practice of the therapeutic method of Active Imagination. This method, which he characterised as a form of "visionary meditation", involves the experience of archetypal activity in the waking state. When employed with patients who exhibit an increased frequency and intensity of archetypal dream material, it functions as an avenue of discharge for, or expression of, the dream material, with the result that it decreases in frequency and intensity in sleep. On the other hand, Jung also asserted that the experience of archetypal material in the waking state could result in a general activation or "constellation" of the unconscious, with the result that the Individuation process is stimulated, facilitated or accelerated. This intensified unconscious activity is invariably manifested in an increased frequency of archetypal dream material. The present investigation subjects hypotheses derived from these two mutually exclusive sets of observations to experimental investigation using hypothetico-deductive and qualitative methodology. Thirteen experimental subjects were matched with a control group on age, sex, socio-economic and marital status. Both groups recorded their nocturnal dreams in standardised diaries for a period of 63 days, divided into the Pre-Experimental (21 days), Experimental (21 days) and Post-Experimental (21 days) phases. During the Experimental phase, extended sequences of waking fantasy were induced in the Experimental subjects for a total of six sessions. The archetypal content of the dreams of both groups was then measured and compared. There was a highly significant increase in archetypal content in the dreams of the Experimental group during the Experimental phase. No such changes were evident in the dreams of the Control group. The archetypal material in the waking fantasies and dreams of the Experimental group was then analyzed for structural and thematic continuities using the Jungian method of amplification, which yielded a complex matrix of anticipatory and retrospective connections. The results are discussed in relation to the support they provide for Jungian theory and their relevance to experimental research on the relationship between fantasy-activity in waking and sleeping states.