Association for Behavior Analysis International

The philosophical and empirical evaluation of dreams can be traced all the way back to early Greek philosophers. Popularized in psychology by Sigmund Freud, dreams represent a complex class of covert behaviors not frequently conceptualized by behavior analysts. Nonetheless, B. F. Skinner is documented describing dreams as perceptual behaviors, subject to operant and respondent stimuli, operating in the absence of consequence. In contrast, J.R. Kantor labeled dreams as implicit behavior, coming about via stimulus substitution. Further, Kantor proposes that dreaming behavior seems to function apart from any immediate interacting context, which contributes to its varying and sometimes radical content. In the first paper, the author will present historical conceptualizations of dreams and dreaming behavior, followed by an in-depth discussion on Skinnerian interpretations. In the second paper, Skinner’s writings on dreams will be contrasted with Kantor’s interbehavioral theory, with a particular emphasis on the advantages of adopting an interbehavioral approach. These papers are intended to facilitate open discussion about dreams and show the connection between varying historical conceptualizations.

Dreams have a long history of cultural, spiritual, and scientific discussion. With the progression of humankind, so too did the conceptualization of dreams evolve in both science and philosophy. Psychology’s most common interpretation of dreams comes from the psychoanalytic work of Sigmund Freud. According to Freud, dreams are symbolic projections of people’s unfulfilled desires and repressed traumas. To understand dreams, psychoanalysts sought to understand the symbols within the dreams themselves, with the assumption that universal symbols persist in function across individuals and populations. Freud’s interpretation of dreams was challenged with the emergence of Skinner's radical behaviorism in the mid to late 20th century. In Skinner’s perspective, dreams are, like all behavior, the product of operant and respondent learning. Specifically, Skinner proposed that dreams are private events of seeing and hearing that emerge from our learning history under minimal consequential control. In this paper, these divergent perspectives will be discussed as well as implications for research and clinical practice.