Aggression in the Dreams of Blind Women

Abstract

Compared a group of visually handicapped adult females and normally sighted college females for nature of aggressive content in nocturnal dreams. The visually handicapped group was comprised of individuals who were partially sighted, congenitally blind and adventitiously blind. Each subject was required to keep a dream diary for a period of two to four months. Diaries were subsequently content-analyzed by means of the aggression scale of the Hall-Van de Castle content-analysis system. Visually handicapped adults, as a group, exhibited far more verbal and covert aggression. Generally, however, findings were in agreement with Hall's continuity hypothesis regarding the relationship between dream content and waking life.