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Policeman: I don't care what you want to do—it's what you HAVE done. You kids are all alike. Simply try to begin some encounter or begin experiencing yourself as the chosen part of your dream. If you are involved in an encounter between two images, you may go from chair to chair as you play each part. Feel free to make any physical movements which are a necessary part of the image you are acting out. At this time, feel free to look back over the script which accompanies this tape if you feel unclear about any of the information presented or about what you are being asked to do. As soon as you are ready, begin your dreamwork speaking into the microphone. Rest assured that your dream material will be erased following your participation in this experiment. Thank you for your help in this study. After the presentation of Peris' theory, the listener was instructed to tell his dream into the microphone in the first person/present tense. He signaled the experimenter when his dream was told and the tape resumed playing. The participant was then instructed to choose and become one image in his dream. Before the enactment began, the subject was invited to turn off the recorder and review the script. When the dreamwork began, the experimenter left the room until signaled. Hall Group: A five-minute recording describing Hall's interpretation of the dream experience was made, based on Faraday's (1972) summary of the theorist's position. Instructions designed to guide the dreamer through Hall's content analysis of a dream was also recorded. Here is the script of the recording: Calvin Hall, a psychologist who was director of the Institute of Dream Research at Santa Cruz, felt that dreams were letters to ourselves. The dream gives a clear and precise account of what the dreamer is thinking about as he sleeps. He is concerned with himself, his relationships with those close to him, and his conflicts and anxieties. Hall felt that for much of the time, the dreamer could be said to be acting out his worries during sleep—worries about the sort of person he is, how others see him, how he sees others, and what he feels the world is going to do to him. For example, the way in which the dreamer sees himself is expressed in dreams by the parts he gives himself. Is he the victim or the aggressor, strong or weak, the coward or the brave? The way in which he sees others is shown in similar fashion. For example, a person who conceives of his father as stern or autocratic may in his dreams turn him into an officer or a policeman. When strangers or public figures appear in dreams, says Hall, they almost always turn out to be personifications of our conceptions of people we actually know. These conceptions vary, so that on one night one may dream of his mother as a witch and, on another night, of her as a queen. The dream setting seems to portray the dreamer's feelings about the world by converting his thoughts into picture language. If he is constantly dreaming of cramped spaces, he feels the world is closing in on him. If he dreams of raging seas, air raids, thunderstorms, and so on, he sees the world as threatening and destructive. Hall is convinced that anyone who can follow a few simple rules can interpret his own dreams. There are four basic rules of dream interpretation 75
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