Findings in the norm group have been replicated quite accurately four times with dream series gathered independently from different dreamers within a period of forty years. Hence, there seem to be only minor changes, if any, in what comparable groups of people dream over the years, Domhoff says. Both are manifestations, so the theory goes, of our mind in action, an idea that dates back to ancient Greece. Hall and Domhoff could not agree more. And Domhoff says all the results Hall, himself and others have obtained so far, seem to support this so-called cognitive theory of dreams, first proposed by Hall in the early 1950s.
Dreams are the most completely subjective picture of what's on our mind.
They are extremely revealing about our self-conception. In this cognitive dream theory, the frequency with which dream elements appear is thought to reflect the concerns and the interests of the dreamer. Thus, any obvious deviation from the norm, or any other group of reference, should allow predictions about the dreamer's preoccupations, concerns, conflicts, and his or her conception of the surrounding world while he or she is awake. Once the dreams are analyzed, Domhoff scrutinizes his inferences, and hence his dream theory, in an interview with the dreamer. I don't think I can tell you much about a single, isolated dream.