Dream recall: imagination, illusion and tough-mindedness.

The failure of dream psychology to delineate clear, consistent and interesting correlates of dream recall presents serious difficulties for the claim that dream recall is functionally significant. The present study examined the relation of six indices of boundary functioning and four measures of life affect to the consistency and frequency of dream recall in 373 young adults. Factor analysis indicated that consistency and frequency of dream recall were unrelated to global measures of boundary functioning, stress, depression, hassles and uplifts. On the assumption that the correlates of dream recall might be specific rather than global, 34 items from our expanded boundary questionnaire having significant zero order correlations with the frequency of dream recall were factor analyzed separately for consistent and inconsistent recallers. The two factors in each analysis were quite similar. Factor one was called the Imagination, factor two, Illusion. Among consistent recallers, dream recall and a group of items called "tough mindedness" loaded on the Imagination factor. For inconsistent recallers similar variables loaded on the Illusion factor. For all subjects, dream recall and tough mindedness were linked whether associated with Imagination or Illusion. The Imagination factor is creative and linked to dream recall for consistent recallers. Their illusion factor is frightening. For inconsistent recallers, the Illusion factor is linked to dreaming and is not frightening, and their Imagination factor is not creative. The stability-instability of dream generation and recall over time apparently results in the association of the dream recall tough-mindedness group of items with either the Imagination or Illusion factors.