Based on dreams after trauma and other recent research a view of the nature of dreaming is developed along the following lines. Dreaming makes connections more broadly than waking in the nets of the mind. Dreaming avoids the "central" rapid input-to-output portions of the net and the feed-forward mode of functioning; it makes connections in the further out regions (further from input/output) and in an auto-associative mode. Dreaming produces more generic and less specific imagery. Dreaming cross-connects. The connections are not made in a random fashion; they are guided by the emotion of the dreamer. Dreaming contextualizes a dominant emotion or emotional concern. This is demonstrated most clearly in dreams after trauma as the trauma resolves but can likewise be seen in dreams after stress, in pregnancy, and in other situations where the dominant emotional concern is known. The form that these connections and contextualizations take is explanatory metaphor. The dream, or the striking dream image, explains metaphorically the emotional state of the dreamer. This entire process is probably functional. The dream functions to spread out excitation or reduce "computational energy" and does this by cross-connecting and "weaving-in ". This has an immediate function in "calming a storm" or reducing a disturbance, and a longer term function relating to memory-not so much consolidating memory but rather cross-connecting, weaving in something new, increasing the connections.

Several studies were done to explore the relationship of the personality measure Thin and Thick Boundaries to dream recall frequency and to dream content. In a large sample there was a highly significant positive correlation between thinness of boundaries, measured on the Boundary Questionnaire, and frequency of dream recall. A subsample of 64 "frequent dreamers" (seven or more dreams per week) scored significantly thinner than a group of 69 "non-dreamers" on the Boundary Questionnaire and on each one of the twelve content categories of the questionnaire. Dream content was examined in smaller samples of subjects who scored either very thick or very thin. Dreams of the "thin" subjects were rated significantly more vivid, more emotional, and with more interaction between characters, compared to dreams of the "thick" subjects.

After completing a short form of the Boundary Questionnaire (Appendix A), 17 students with high scores indicative of thin boundaries and 13 students with low scores indicative of thick boundaries participated in a testing session in which they reported their "most recent dream'~ their "most recent daydream ", another "dream that really stands out'~ and another "daydream that really stands out." Dreams and daydreams were rated on three 8-point scales-Bizarreness, Dreamlikeness, and Emotionality-by two independent raters who remained blind to Boundary Questionnaire scores. The dream reports were rated significantly more bizarre, more dreamlike, and more emotional than the daydream reports. In addition, the thin boundaried subjects' reports were significantly more bizarre than the thick boundaried subjects' reports. Indeed, the recent daydreams of subjects with thin boundaries were as bizarre as the recent dreams of those with thick boundaries.

Emotion Guides the Dream. The Central Image of the Dream Pictures and Measures the Emotion Many research studies are presented, demonstrating that the dream is guided by the emotions of the dreamer. The dream, and especially the Central Image of the dream, pictures ("contextualizes") the dreamer's emotions or emotional concerns. The more powerful the underlying emotion, the more powerful (intense) is the Central Image of the dream. * * Applying Bonferroni corrections as well as the less strict Sequential Bonferroni (Dunn-Sidak) corrections for multiple tests leads to the same conclusion: Results on "CI Intensity" and "CI Proportion" are still signifi cant. Results on "Content: attacks" are no longer signifi cant at p < .05.

Nightmares, far from being unsuccessful dreams or exceptions to rules about dreams, can be considered paradigms for all dreaming. They allow us to follow exactly how a disturbance or perturbation is handled by the processing systems in our minds. The data considered here consists of dream series in the weeks and months immediately following trauma in adults--in other words, nightmares and dreams occurring as the trauma resolves. It appears the traumatized person may dream first about the actual trauma (though not always), then, very quickly, the dreams appear to deal with the dominant emotion. Dreams of being overwhelmed by a tidal wave or being swept up by a whirlwind are common after almost any trauma. Clearly, such dreams are not about the sensory input from the actual trauma. Rather, the dreams are about the dominant emotion. The dreams contextualize (find a picture context for) the emotional concern. After trauma, the dominant emotion is usually first terror and fear, then often followed by guilt (such as survivor guilt). This too is pictured in the dream series. The same pattern of contextualizing an emotional concern can be seen in stressful situations, in pregnancy, or in patients whose lives are dominated by one emotion. This pattern is paradigmatic for all dreams, but it may be difficult to detect in "ordinary" dreams, because there may be a number of other relatively smaller emotional concerns present, as opposed to the one clear-cut dominant one (as after trauma). A theory of dreaming is sketched out based on these data which suggests that overall dreaming makes connections more broadly than waking in the nets of the mind, and that the connections are not made randomly but guided by the dreamer's emotional concerns. It is also suggested that the making of connections may be functional for the organism in the sense of "weaving in," or integrating, new material.

A contextualizing image (Cl) is a powerful central image of a dream which appears to "contextualize" (provide a picture-context for) the dreamer's emotion. For instance, dreamers who have experienced any serious traumatic event sometimes dream, "I was overwhelmed by a tidal wave." This appears to picture their feeling of terror and/or vulnerability.A scoring system for CIs is examined here and is applied to dreams and daydreams supplied by 40 students. Two raters scoring dreams on a blind basis showed good inter-rater reliability. Recent dreams were shown to have more as well as more intense CIs than recent daydreams; likewise, dreams "that stand out" had more intense CIs than daydreams that "stand out." Students with "thin boundaries" had more and more intense CIs than students with "thick boundaries" in their recent dreams and nightmare, but not so clearly in dreams and nightmares "that stand out." The emotions judged as contextualized by the powerful images tended towards fear/terror and helplessness/vulnerability in dreams (especially in dreams that stand out) whereas emotions contextualized by images in daydreams showed a wide range with no clusters.

We examined a series of twenty dreams-the last ten dreams recorded before 9111101 and the first ten dreams recorded after 911110 I-from each of sixteen individuals in the United States who regularly record all their dreams. Blind scoring using established scales demonstrated that dreams after 9111/01 were characterized by more intense imagery, but were not longer nor more "dreamlike," compared to data before 9111101. The dreams after 9111101 did not contain significantly more content related to the attacks. The results show that traumatic events such as the attacks of 9111101 have a detectable effect on dreams-specifically an increase in dream image intensity-in a population of dream recorde rs. Whether this finding can be generalized to the entire population is not clear from this preliminary study. The results of this study are consistent with previous findings that dream image intensity is related to emotional arousal.

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