Literature review 5: When Did Your Dreams Come True?


Citation: 

Tierney, John. “When Did Your Dreams Come True?” The New York Times, The New York

Times, 25 Mar. 2009, tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/when-did-your- dreams-come-true/#:~:text=For%20both%20dreams%2C%20we%20asked,dream%20that%20had%20come%20true. 

Summary: The New York Times conducted a survey of its readers, asking which dream theory they believed in out of four options. 51% indicated that they believed in Freudian dream theory. They then asked the respondents if they could recall a dream that they'd had which came true. 33% could. 

Author: John Tierney is a journalist. Supposedly he wanted to be a scientist but went with journalist because  with peer review, it was an easier way to get his articles out there. 

Key terms: Dreams, Statistics of dreams, Poll, Freud

Quotes: "As in our other research, the Freudian theory proved most popular: a majority of your readers (51.0%) reported believing the Freudian theory of dreaming to be most true. . ."

"Eight-eight percent of readers could recall a dream of the future that remained unfulfilled and a whopping 33 percent could recall a dream that had come true."

". . .about 28 percent of the respondents to the survey said they believed that dreams do indeed foretell the future . . ."

Value: This article proves that Freudian dream theory is still popular and influences the general population. Additionally, there are great statistics about how many modern people believe in prophetic dreams, something that Freud himself did not believe in at all. There is also a scientific explanation about why some dreams come true, which is that in a life with endless possibilities it's only natural that sometimes dreams will line up with reality. Freud may not have voiced that point of view but he definitely would have preferred it to the alternative of any supernatural interference. 

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