Death and Dreams: A Sociological Approach to Grieving and Identity

Abstract

Dreaming of the dead may provide the context from which a dead self or identity comes back to life. During sleep, our dreams open alternative realities in which we have opportunities not perceived while awake. For those who have lost friends, family members, or influential people in their lives to death, these dreams bring opportunities to interact with the deceased. Through interviews with thirty individuals, four themes of dreams emerged: 1) static depressive past, 2) static historical past, 3) emergent traumatic present, and 4) emergent natural present. This research illustrates how dreams possibly facilitate the grieving process and bring the dead self or identity associated with the deceased back to life. A sociological approach, specifically Symbolic Interactionist, suggests that dreaming of the dead: 1) provides a context where the self or identity associated with the deceased returns to life, 2) is a strategy for coping with grief, 3) provides a context integrating past and present allowing for direction and continuity in the present, and 4) allows individuals to complete acts and attain closure.