Sixteen Years of Dreams Following Spousal Bereavement

Abstract

This study compares two contrasting models concerning the relationship of dreams to phases of bereavement. To accomplish this, a content analysis of a widower's 16-year dream diary was conducted. While there was a small tendency for dreams of the deceased being alive again to occur earlier in the diary, and dreams of being separated from the deceased to occur later, in general there was no evidence of an orderly emergence of dream themes across time. These findings are supportive of more recent views of bereavement that stress the importance of redefining a relationship with the deceased rather than resolving grief in an orderly and timely manner. More generally, the present study contributes to a growing recognition that dreams can be a valuable tool for studying reactions to bereavement.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Archer

(2001). Broad and narrow perspectives in grief theory: Comment on Bonanno and Kaltman (1999). Psychological Bulletin, 127, 554–560.

Barrett

(1991–92). Through a glass darkly: Images of the dead in dreams. Omega, 24(2), 97–108.

Barrett

(1996). Trauma and dreams. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bonanno

(2001). The crucial importance of empirical evidence in the development of bereavement theory: Reply to Archer (2001). Psychological Bulletin, 127, 554–560.

Bonanno

, & Kaltman

(1999). Toward an integrative perspective on bereavement. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 760–775.

Domhoff

G. W.

(1996). Finding meaning in dreams: A quantitative approach. New York: Plenum Press.

Garfield

(1996). In Barrett

(Ed.), Trauma and dreams (pp. 186–211). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Gulko

(1996). My dreams of Flo. Unpublished manuscript.

Hall

, & Van de Castle

(1966). The content analysis of dreams. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

10.

Hartmann

(1995). The dreams of resolving trauma: An approach to understanding the functions of dreaming. ASD Newsletter, 12(1), 25–26.

11.

Kaminer

, & Lavie

(1991). Sleep and dreaming in Holocaust survivors: Dramatic decrease in dream recall in well-adjusted survivors. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 179, 664–669

12.

Kübler-Ross

(1975). Death, The final stage of growth. New York: Prentice-Hall.

13.

Kuiken

(1993, June). Reactions to stress: Loss and dream impact. Paper presented at the meeting of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

14.

Lavie

, & Kaminer

(1991). Dreams that poison sleep: Dreaming in Holocaust survivors. Dreaming, 1, 11–21.

15.

Stroebe

M. S.

(2001). Bereavement research and theory: Retrospective and prospective. American Behavioral Scientist, 44, 854–865.