Personal Boundaries and Nightmare Consequences in Frequent Nightmare Sufferers
Authors: Pietrowsky R.1; Köthe M.2
Source: Dreaming, Volume 13, Number 4, 200312 , pp. 245-254(10)
Publisher: Springer
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Abstract:
According to the boundary concept of Hartmann (1991), the occurence of nightmares was repeatedly shown to be correlated to thin personal boundaries. The present study investigated the relationship between boundary thinness and emotional, cognitive, and behavioral consequences of nightmares in frequent nightmare sufferers. Occurence of nightmares and their respective consequences were recorded daily during a 4-week period by diaries and questionnaires. Confirming previous results, frequent nightmare sufferers had significantly thinner personal boundaries than occasional nightmare sufferers, and nightmare frequency was positively correlated to boundary thinness. In frequent nightmare sufferers, the emotional and cognitive consequences of a nightmare as well as its possible explanations were correlated to boundary thinness; mainly the personal total score and the Boundary Questionnaire scales “sleep/wake/dreams,” “thoughts/feelings/mood” and “sensitivity.” The results indicate that although nightmare frequency is positively correlated to thin personal boundaries, only particular aspects of the concept of personal boundaries are correlated to emotional and cognitive consequences of the nightmares.Keywords: nightmares; nightmare frequency; personal boundaries; behavioral effects of nightmares
Document Type: Research article
Affiliations: 1: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Düsseldorf, Germany;, Email: R.Pietrowsky@uni-duesseldorf.de 2: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Düsseldorf, Germany
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