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Changing beliefs and memories through dream interpretation
Author(s) -
Mazzoni Giuliana A. L.,
Loftus Elizabeth F.,
Seitz Aaron,
Lynn Steven J.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0720(199904)13:2<125::aid-acp560>3.0.co;2-5
Subject(s) - dream , psychology , autobiographical memory , childhood memory , interpretation (philosophy) , developmental psychology , childhood amnesia , cognition , cognitive psychology , psychoanalysis , social psychology , psychotherapist , recall , semantic memory , psychiatry , computer science , programming language
Autobiographical memory is malleable, but how much can we change people's beliefs and memories about the past? We approached this question with a method designed to supply subjects with a highly personalized suggestion about what probably happened in their childhood. In the current study, one group of subjects (the ‘Dream’ subjects) had their dreams interpreted to indicate that they had experienced a critical childhood event (e.g. being harassed by a bully) before the age of 3. Relative to control subjects who did not receive personalized suggestion, the Dream subjects were more likely to increase their belief that they had the critical experience, and approximately half of these also produced concrete memory reports. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for autobiographical memory, and also for psychotherapy practice. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.