Dreams by Persons with Mood Disorders

Abstract

This work evaluated the structure of dreams in depressed patients. The verbal reports of dreams of 100 depressed patients were compared with 251 dreams of a control group. In accordance with the Jungian thought, which view's dreams as texts, dream reports were assessed using textual analysis processing techniques. Significant differences were found in parameter values, as well as in the role of the dreamer as an external observer. Considering the length of the dreams' texts, depressed patients used fewer words than the control group. With regard to sensory field, there were fewer lemmas referring to sight for depressed patients than for healthy participants. This work seems to confirm the value of textual analysis in the study of oneiric material