阅读理解
We tend to think of our dreams as being
uniquely personalnighttime stories built from our own experiences that
help us process our day-to-day lives. While dreams can give us a look into our
personal selves, scientists have collected data that suggests dreams make their
way into our cultural fabric(结构), showing themselves in
ways that shape beliefs and expose collective anxieties.
Roger Ivar Lohmann of Trent
University conducted research with the Asabano people of the rainforest of
Papua New Guinea, a unique group who didn't have outside contact until 1963.
His studies looked at how dreams shape their beliefs and actions.
According to Lohmann's
research, dreams act as a sort of motivator or determinant of Asabano behavior.
For instance, a dream may affect the way a person hunts or goes about treating
medical conditions. The way dreams determine behavior is due to what Lohmann
calls the "night residue" effect. This means that specific memories
of dreams can affect the way a person acts when awake and inform their belief
system.
Dreams also seem to have an
effect on the way many define themselves within their own cultures, and how
sometimes reaching a distinct definition can cause anxiety.
Matt Newsom of Washington State
University spoke with college students in Berlin, and found many students had
dreams surrounding conflicting views about their own identities(身份) in
relation to what they saw as a return of German nationalism, which is a
sensitive subject especially when we think of German identity as it's defined
even many years after World War Ⅱ.
Many students had dreams that
centered around anxieties like "Where do I belong?" Many students
never talked with one another about identity struggles in their dreams, yet many
reported having such dreams. Newsom noted that dreams can be helpful "for
identifying (识别) unspoken social and historical anxieties present in a given
society."
All of this research suggests
that dreams can do more than help explain the thought of a person; we can learn
about entire cultures and collective attitudes as well.