Text Mining Descriptions Of Dreams: aesthetic and clinical efforts

TL;DR

This paper explores how text mining techniques can extract meaningful insights from dream descriptions, enhancing clinical and artistic practices through innovative analysis and presentation methods.

Contribution

It introduces novel text mining methods applied to dream descriptions and demonstrates their use in creating art and therapeutic tools.

Findings

Dream descriptions can be effectively mined for artistic and clinical purposes.

Mining results are aesthetically appealing and engage audiences.

The approach opens new avenues for art and therapy using dream texts.

Abstract

Dreams are highly valued in both Freudian psychoanalysis and less conservative clinical traditions. Text mining enables the extraction of meaning from writings in powerful and unexpected ways. In this work, we report methods, uses and results obtained by mining descriptions of dreams. The texts were collected as part of a course in Schizoanalysis (Clinical Psychology) from dozens of participants. They were subsequently mined using various techniques for the achievement of poems and summaries, which were then used in clinical sessions by means of music and declamation. The results were found aesthetically appealing and effective to engage the audience. The expansion of the corpus, mining methods and strategies for using the derivatives for art and therapy are considered for future work.