The self of my dreams: A case study of an elaborate and contextualized dream self-concept

Abstract

For many people, dreams feel disconnected, incoherent, and often meaningless. In this case study, we have identified a member of a subpopulation whose dreams are similar to those in his waking state, potentially allowing for a dream self-concept to develop. The purpose of this research was to examine how the participant’s dream diary data map onto self-concept assessments of his dream and waking states. The participant completed a month-long dream diary, then a series of self-concept assessments regarding his waking and dream self-concepts. Upon completion, two research assistants coded the content of his diary entries, linking the content to the dream and waking self-aspects. The results revealed that his waking and dream self-concepts contained highly contextualized content, but both contained self-structures that focused mainly on personal attributes, close others, and skills. Overall, this suggests that our participant has an elaborate and contextualized dream self-concept, with a similar latent self-structure as his waking life.