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is ignored in preference to the defined structure
of the
scale. That is, on the basis of
experience, we assume
that most dreams are, when originally
experienced in
the dream state, narratives, with a flow of events.
There
must certainly be exceptions. But for
the purposes of
this work, we assume that if the
dream recall includes
only a vivid image, then some of the
dream must have
been forgotten. It's important that you not
feel that you
are undervaluing your dream when you
give it a recall
rating of I or F. You
are not. All you are doing
is
applying the definitions of a particular system
of rating
dream recall.
Question: Could
you clarify the distinction between
the partial and
majority categories, because
the
distinction given seems vague and subject to a variety
of
interpretations.
Answer: The line
between P and M is really not
a
line, but a large gray area, and the distinction
is subject
to individual judgment, which can be
looked upon as
either a merit or fault of the
system, depending upon
your viewpoint. Most of the time that the P category
is
used it will be for a dream
recall which just barely
qualifies as partial-very incomplete
recall but with
some flow. On the other hand, most of the time that
the
M category is used, it
will be for dream recall which
does not quite qualify as whole, because of the presence
of some obvious gap in memory.
There will be those
occasions, however, in which both a substantial
amount
of the dream is recalled and a substantial amount
is felt
to be forgotten. Here one may be forced
to ponder the
distinction between P and M. There can be
no strict rule.
The spirit of the categories can be expressed as,
"Use P
when you feel that you've forgotten most
of the dream,
and use M when you feel
that you have remembered
most of the dream. When in doubt, use P."
Question: What if you
have dream recall that fits the
description of one category but fails to meet the criteria
for a lower category for
example, a dream with
transitions (good for a rating of P)
but which provides
no knowledge of the theme of the
dream (insufficient
for a rating of F)—which category do you use?
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