Content Analysis

This is a term used by scientific researchers for a special kind of way of examining large numbers of dreams. It is often contrasted with interpretive methods of working with dreams.

Let's say you have 100 dreams from one dreamer. You analyze each dream to find the components of the dream. For instance, what is the subject of the dream -- who are the cast of characters, are the interactions friendly or aggressive, what are the emotions expressed in the dream etc.

Calvin Hall and Robert Van De Castle wrote "Content Analysis". Bill Domhoff's "The Quantitative Study of Dreams" is the definitive and monumental work.

Dream Journals

If you keep a dream journal you can tally up the most frequent aspects of your dreams and it will give you a fascinating picture of the subjects that matter most to your dream life Bill Domhoff recommends around 120 dreams to obtain statistical significance -- i.e. to feel sure that you have an accurate picture. Even with 25 dreams, you'll probably see some trends (only trends) that make sense to you as a description of your current issues.

I like content analysis because it's a good counter-balance to the "touchy-feely" methods that I mainly use. If your content analysis gives you similar answers, you can be sure you are on track. If not, you've got some good questions to consider.

As you examine the dreams to decide how to categorize them, you'll already be building up a picture of your dream life. Here are the kinds of questions to ask when you've finished adding things up:

How often does a friendly interaction occur? (Vs a hostile interaction)
How often do nightmares happen?
How many men and how many women are there in your dreams and so on?
How often do your parents occur?
What are the most frequent subjects of the dream (Chase, sex, flying, lost object, teeth falling out ...)?