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ABSTRACT

The compensatory function of dreams: confirmation from the computer

The authors analyzed 165 dreams of psychotic patients and 195 dreams of a control group using computer technology of textual analysis (TACT). The significant major frequency with which certain images, recurred in the dreams of psychotic patients seems to confirm the Jungian theory of compensatory function of the dreams.

AUTHORS:

Marco Zanasi, Claudia Di Pasquale
Psychatric Clinic "Tor Vergata" University Rome, Italy

Marco Zanasi. (Person to be notified of the program committee's decisions)
Email address: marco.zanasi@uniroma2.it
MD, Neurologist and Psychiatrist. Jungian analyst. Member of (International Association of Analytical Psychology. Group Analyst. Research Professor at "Tor Vergata" Rome University.
Since 10 years studies correlations between dreams images and psychopathology using Textual Analysis Software.

Claudia Di Pasquale
Address: Via delle vigne di colle pisano, 8 - 00044 Frascati, RM (Italy). Tel 0347 9383621
E-mail address: claudiadipasquale@libero.it
Doctor of medicine, specializing in psychiatry at "Tor Vergata" Rome University

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

· To Confirm Jungian theories on the dreams
· To Develop a new method for the study of the dreams
· To Study selfrepresentation of psychopatholgy in the dreams

EVALUATION QUESTION:

· How does function Textual Analysis Software?
· Why can we use it in the study of the dreams?
· What is the aim of compensatory function in dreams of schizophrenic patients?

ABSTRACT

THE COMPENSATORY FUNCTION OF DREAMS: CONFIRMATION FROM THE COMPUTER

Marco Zanasi, Claudia Di Pasquale

Man, since his existence, tried to understand the language of dreams, considering it a kind of divine messenger, a vehicle for his knowledge and for precious information for his daily life and for his psychic life. The interest related to the dream's phenomena didn't change during the past , introducing the development of psychoanalysis and it's theories, which formed the base to the dynamic psychiatry.
This article's purpose is to analyze dreams in a non conventional way, intended as a literal work produced during night by a dreamer's non conscious activity.
The attention was paid at the dream's "language" with the objective to study and fix the attention to the existence of basic invariant structures of the dream's, to confirm Jung's thesis about the existence of a "common unconscious ", which links the entire manhood, independently from any racial ,cultural and geographical difference .
165dreams of psychotic persons, patients of a Psychiatric Centre for Diagnostic Services, and 195 of control group were analyzed with a specific software, TACT, Textual Analysis Computer Tool, which is able to establish a quantitative analysis and information about the literal style of the text.
The results show a higher frequency of the words I, My (as female and male possessive pron.) in the dreams of psychotic persons versus control group.
The authors think that these data are a confirm of the existence of invariant elements in dreams and thereby confirms the Jungian theory of a collective unconscious, opening the road to further research.
The method used for this work, allows to obtain, from material which seems in appearance to be chaotic and not well structured like the dream, elements of regularity with a statistic significance, offering a strict method to confirm Jung's intuitions and observations.