Narratological Phenomenological Analysis of Dreams

Toward Dream Research as a Handmade Science

Abstract

We propose a method for dream research as a handmade science that can be undertaken by "non–experts". In §1, "Practical basics", a step–by–step method is proposed, beginning with creating a "dream diary" website, as suitable for this handmade science. This method, termed "narratological phenomenological analysis of dreams", consists of three steps: Jung’s story structure analysis, popular culture–inspired "different world" analysis, and phenomenological analysis based on the "dream world principle". Applying these steps to a dream sample taken from the author’s dream diary website, we arrive at the meaning of the dream. In §2, "Theoretical considerations", the origin of phenomenological dream analysis is sought in Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenology and Watanabe's dream analysis based on Husserl's intentional analysis. Lakoff’s theory of metaphor is also shown to be important. In §3, "Practical application", the analytical method proposed above is applied to a series of three dreams. In §4, "Discussion and conclusion", we examine the complementary relationship between the phenomenological analysis of dreams used in this paper and a neurocognitive theory of dreams.