Maladaptive Daydreaming

I am not the type of person who daydreams about epic scenarios like saving people from an exploding building, but our main character Walter Mitty is. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a comedy adventure film about experiencing the beauty and fulfillment life can offer. Walter, the maladaptive daydreamer, has his world of scenarios that he wants to experience in his daydreams. But throughout the movie, his character develops as we see him take leaps of faith towards making his daydreams reality. Likewise, his newfound relationships with the other characters of the movie, Cheryl, Sean, and Todd, push him to make these leaps. I will argue that the concept of intersubjectivity is essential in understanding how these relationships enriched Walter's personhood.

A paper based on the following prompt:

Watch the film “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (2013), and answer the following:

By referencing concepts pertaining to  Intersubjectivity, explain how Walter Mitty’s relationality with others and the world around him enriched his personhood. Do so by relating his character development throughout key moments in the film with philosophical concepts discussed in class.
Then, synthesize your paper by showing how the film emphasizes the importance of intersubjectivity in the exercise of reason, and the formation of culture.

In order to determine the comorbidity profile of individuals meeting criteria for a proposed new disorder, Daydreaming Disorder (more commonly known as Maladaptive Daydreaming, MD), the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders were administered to 39 participants who met criteria for MD on a structured interview. We determined high rates of comorbidity: 74.4% met criteria for more than three additional disorders and 41.1% met criteria for more than four. The most frequent comorbid disorder was attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (76.9%); 71.8% met criteria for an anxiety disorder; 66.7% for a depressive disorder; and 53.9% for an obsessive-compulsive or related disorder. Notably, 28.2% have attempted suicide. Individuals meeting criteria for MD suffer from complex psychiatric problems spanning a range of DSM-5 disorders. This finding provides evidence that MD is different than normal daydreaming, and that these individuals experience considerable distress and impairment.

Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost all countries have employed varying degrees of lockdown measures to limit the spread of the infection. Previous studies showed that individuals with maladaptive daydreaming (MD) are affected negatively by the lockdown. In this study, we explored a set of lockdown measures (e.g., self-quarantine) and personal factors (e.g., education, history of depression, and personality traits) that might potentially exacerbate MD experienced during the lockdown period. We also examined whether perceived stress acted as a mediator in the relationship between these factors and MD. During the first lockdown from April to June, we analyzed data provided by 1083 individuals from the USA, the UK, Italy, and Turkey. A path analysis revealed that perceived stress mediated the effects on MD of self-quarantine, previous episodes of depression, low education level, and introversion and emotional instability. Our study suggests a conceptual framework for the factors that intensify maladaptive daydreaming under the threats of the pandemic and forced home confinement, offering implications for interventions with vulnerable populations.

Reality shifting (RS) is a trendy mental activity that emerged abruptly following the flare-up of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and seems to be practiced mainly by members of the post-millennial generation. RS, described as the experience of being able to transcend one's physical confines and visit alternate, mostly fictional, universes, is discussed by many on Internet platforms. One RS forum boasts over 40,000 members and RS clips on some social media platforms have been viewed over 1.7 billion times. The experience of shifting is reportedly facilitated by specific induction methods involving relaxation, concentration of attention, and autosuggestion. Some practitioners report a strong sense of presence in their desired realities, reified by some who believe in the concrete reality of the alternate world they shift to. One of the most popular alternate universes involves environments adopted from the Harry Potter book and film series. We describe the phenomenology of RS as reported online and then compare it to related phenomena such as hypnosis, tulpamancy, dissociation, immersive and maladaptive daydreaming, and lucid dreaming. We propose a theoretical model of interactive factors giving rise to RS, and conclude that it is an important, uninvestigated emerging phenomenon and propose future research directions.

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A great American psychologist summarizes one of the most difficult of subjects--the nature of dreaming--after decades of lifting matters out of the morass of Freudianism. The result nonetheless is a thin gruel that misses the main thing about dreams: their unworldly imaginative power. But he is not the only one. Who defends the psyche in modern science? Who knows what it is, where it resides, and how it controls the brain? The true theory of dreaming will emerge only by facing and answering these questions, which can be said to have baffled ancient, medieval, and modern investigators alike. At present materialism stands confused, pathetically benighted in its own shadow.

Readers are now advised that a new approach to the true theory of dreaming, as well as the first mechanistic explanation of Night Terrors in scientific history, is contained in the reviewer's illustrated essay on this page called 'The Last Day.' Both this late 2017 review and the new 2020 essay concern the same foundational ideas within idealism and can be said to blend smoothly together to produce an increasingly coherent view of the phenomenology as well as the fundamental nature of dreaming, the achievement of which depends on isolating and identifying the cosmic generator of dreams.

See also 'Sartre on Dreaming' (2022) and 'On the Materialization of Being' (2022) for deeper insights into the nature of dreaming according to idealism and in the context of the embodiment of the psyche, which reaches far deeper inwardly than the farthest galaxies are from the Solar System.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been spreading globally since December 2019, bringing with it anxieties, mortal risk, and agonizing psychological suffering. This study aimed to explore the relationship between maladaptive daydreaming (MD)-an addictive mental behavior to vivid fantasy associated with distress and functional impairment-and forced COVID-19 pandemic-related self-isolation and quarantine. Previous literature indicated that individuals employ MD for the regulation of distress and boredom, wish fulfillment, and entertainment experiences. The literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health identifies a flareup in psychological difficulties in the general population. In this study we explored the associations between the pandemic threat and mental health indices among individuals with MD. We surveyed 1,565 adults from over 70 countries who responded to calls for participants posted in online MD communities and other general social media sites. Probable MD was determined based on an empirically derived cutoff score on a pertinent measure. After controlling for sociodemographic variables, a series of MANCOVAs, followed by post-hoc ANCOVAs, revealed that individuals with probable MD who were observing lockdown restrictions reported having spent more time in fantasy, experienced more intense and vivid daydreaming, and had a stronger urge to daydream than other participants. Similar statistical procedures indicated that, individuals with probable MD who reported pre-existing anxiety and depression disorders described a greater urge to daydream due to the pandemic and greater difficulty to control this addictive behavior. Compared to individuals with likely normal daydreaming, individuals with suspected MD reported more pandemic-attributed deterioration on a wide array of psychological distress indices. Our data show that the current worldwide pandemic threat is connected with an elevated intensity of this addictive form of mental activity,

This study explored the network structure of Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD), and links between MD and emotional regulation difficulties. Participants (n = 542) completed an online survey on MD and emotional regulation difficulties. Two network models were estimated. In the MD-only network, items clustered in three communities, most items were positively connected, and difficulty controlling the daydream was most central. In the expanded network, there were many cross-construct associations, and limited emotional regulation strategies and difficulty controlling the daydream were most central. These findings indicate that difficulties with control is central to MD, and that MD may be related to dysfunctional emotional regulation.

Most older people who have been sexually abused in childhood have probably never been treated for the consequences of their destructive experiences. The character pathology and long-term effects of child sexual abuse are described. Parallels were drawn between delayed Posttraumatic Stress Disorder seen in older veterans and World War II victims and later-life onset of posttraumatic psychopathology in aging incest survivors. Special geropsycholog- ical treatment issues, such as the appropriateness of explicit inquiry regarding a history of abuse and the role of power, gender, and shame in the psychotherapeutic relationship, are presented. The dilemma of uncovering repressed malignant childhood trauma in aging individuals is discussed. With proper medical and psychological preparation, demanding curative interventions with older survivors may be considered.

ABSTRACT We analyzed responses of 539 adults who met an evidence-based criterion for probable maladaptive daydreaming (MD). Their reported childhood traumata were associated with the utilization of MD to distract from painful memories. A history of childhood physical and emotional neglect as well as emotional abuse was associated with daydreaming aimed to regulate emotional pain. Childhood exposure to physical and emotional abuse was associated with an increased likelihood of daydreaming about an idealized version of their original families. Themes of emotional suffering were associated with exposure to childhood emotional abuse. A range of morbid imageries and trauma-related reenacting behaviors featured in the fantasies of our respondents. Childhood emotional abuse was related to daydreaming about death, physical violence as a victim, being a captor, being rescued, and being a rescuer. Childhood sexual abuse was correlated with themes of sexual violence as a victim, being a captive, and being rescued. Childhood emotional neglect was linked with daydreaming about taking revenge, and a childhood history of physical abuse was associated with current fantasies about being captive. MD fantasy among adults exposed to childhood trauma may not only serve as mere coping mechanisms but potentially manifest a pathological preoccupation with unresolved childhood adversities.

Daydreaming is important for creativity and the understanding of our minds and those of others. However, some adults daydream to such an extreme degree that the behavior becomes disruptive; a condition known as maladaptive daydreaming (MD). We propose that highly immersive daydreaming is not always maladaptive, and immersive characteristics of daydreaming may benefit emotional regulation, empathy, and creativity. This study consisted of 542 participants from 56 countries recruited online from MD and other communities. Our results revealed that the maladaptive components of MD predicted higher affective empathy, poorer emotional regulation abilities, and reduced creative output. The immersive components of daydreaming predicted higher empathy for fantasy characters and poorer emotional regulation. These results suggest that the immersive and maladaptive components of MD have distinct behavioral correlates, but that any form of immersive daydreaming is not an effective emotional regulation strategy. Implications for the planning of effective treatment for MD are discussed.

A commentary on . The potential relevance of maladaptive daydreaming in treatment of dissociative identity disorder in persons with ritual abuse and complex inner worlds. Frontiers in the Psychotherapy of Trauma and Dissociation, 2(1), 160-173.

Reality shifting (RS) is a trendy mental activity that emerged abruptly following the flare-up of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and seems to be practiced mainly by members of the post-millennial generation. RS, described as the experience of being able to transcend one's physical confines and visit alternate, mostly fictional, universes, is discussed by many on Internet platforms. One RS forum boasts over 40,000 members and RS clips on some social media platforms have been viewed over 1.7 billion times. The experience of shifting is reportedly facilitated by specific induction methods involving relaxation, concentration of attention, and autosuggestion. Some practitioners report a strong sense of presence in their desired realities, reified by some who believe in the concrete reality of the alternate world they shift to. One of the most popular alternate universes involves environments adopted from the Harry Potter book and film series. We describe the phenomenology of RS as reported online and then compare it to related phenomena such as hypnosis, tulpamancy, dissociation, immersive and maladaptive daydreaming, and lucid dreaming. We propose a theoretical model of interactive factors giving rise to RS, and conclude that it is an important, uninvestigated emerging phenomenon and propose future research directions.

This study explores the recently described phenomenon of Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD) and attempts to enhance the understanding of its features. It documents the experiences of 340 self-identified maladaptive daydreamers who spend excessive amounts of time engaged in mental fantasy worlds, in comparison to 107 controls. Our sample included a total of 447 individuals, aged 13–78, from 45 countries who responded to online announcements. Participants answered quantitative and qualitative questions about their daydreaming habits and completed seven questionnaires assessing mental health symptoms. Findings demonstrated that MD differs significantly from normative daydreaming in terms of quantity, content, experience, controllability, distress, and interference with life functioning. Results also demonstrated that Maladaptive Daydreamers endorsed significantly higher rates of attention deficit, obsessive compulsive and dissociation symptoms than controls. In sum, findings suggested that MD represents an under-acknowledged clinical phenomenon that causes distress, hinders life functioning and requires more scientific and clinical attention.

Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) is an excessive and vivid fantasy activity that interferes with individual’s normal functioning and can result in severe distress. Research has shown that MD is a clinical condition associated with a number of personal, interpersonal and behavioral problems. Therefore, a need exists to differentiate MD from other mental activities that involve an excessive or otherwise problematic use of fantasy. These include, among others, daydreaming, mind wandering, dissociative absorption, fantasy proneness, sluggish cognitive tempo, lucid dreaming, and autistic fantasy. In this article, we examine the commonalities and differences between MD and these mental activities, to promote a better understanding of the MD phenomena and their specificity, and to foster the quality of its assessment in clinical settings. A clinical case study is employed to elucidate our analysis and to demonstrate the differential diagnosis of MD.

Objective: Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) entails excessive immersion and engagement in complex fantasy worlds, causing distress and impairing functioning. Maladaptive Daydreamers often report that existing diagnostic labels are unhelpful for them. Previous studies reported high rates of comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among persons with MD, raising the question of their separateness. This study explored whether MD differs essentially from ADHD by examining an ADHD sample, hypothesizing a much lower incidence of MD. Method: Adults diagnosed with ADHD (N = 83) were assessed for ADHD symptoms, MD, depression, loneliness, and self-esteem. Participants who exceeded the study's cutoff score for suspected MD were invited to participate in a structured diagnostic interview for MD. Results: In accordance with the hypothesis, only 20.5% of the ADHD sample met the proposed diagnostic criteria for MD. Compared with ADHD-only participants, this subgroup presented increased depression, loneliness, and lowered self-esteem.

Objective: Studies on maladaptive daydreaming have shown that it has a number of comorbidities including dissociative disorders, yet no studies have examined the reciprocal relationship. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of maladaptive daydreaming in a sample of psychiatric inpatients with high levels of dissociation. Methods: The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), Self-Report Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule, Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale-16 (MDS-16), Structured Clinical Interview for Maladaptive Daydreaming, and the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory were administered to a sample of 100 inpatients in a psychiatric hospital program specializing in dissociative disorders. Results: Of the 100 participants, 93 reported childhood physical and/or sexual abuse, 33 met criteria for

This paper describes the course of psychotherapeutic treatment of a 25-year-old man presenting with maladaptive daydreaming (MD), from analysis of the underlying rationale through the treatment process to the outcomes. MD, a condition marked by highly absorptive daydreaming , consumed many hours of his day and produced distress, dysfunc-tion, and excessive Internet use. Ontological analysis resulted in classifying MD characteristics under several categories: as a dissociative disorder of absorption, as a behavioral addiction, and as an obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder producing significant attention deficits. The therapy plan was derived from evidence-based treatment modalities for conditions elucidated in the ontological analysis and included cognitive behavioral interventions as well as mindfulness meditation. Therapy was provided for a predetermined period of six months. MD and relevant indices were measured before and after therapy, as well as at a two-month follow-up. The data show that the client was able to reduce his daydreaming time by over 50% and his time spent on the Internet by over 70%. He reported an improvement of over 70% in his work and social adjustment. Nevertheless, his maladaptive daydreaming scale score and his self-assessed pleasure derived from daydreaming showed more modest gains. I discuss this discrepancy and suggest future research directions.

Daydreaming, a common mental activity, can be excessive and accompanied by distress and impaired functioning in daily life. Although currently not formally identified by diagnostic manuals, daydreaming disorder (maladaptive daydreaming [MD]) is a clinically well-defined phenomenon. However, research is lacking regarding the diagnostic reliability of MD. Our aims were (a) to develop diagnostic criteria and a structured interview for MD, (b) to examine the reliability of this measure for distinguishing individuals with and without MD, and (c) to establish an optimal cutoff score for identifying clinical-level MD using an existing self-report measure. Thirty-one individuals who met screening criteria for MD and 31 matched controls completed the self-report measure and participated in 2 structured clinical interviews. Each participant was interviewed independently by 2 clinicians blind to the participant's group membership. Cohen's kappa values for the agreement rate between each interviewer and the screening criterion, and between the 2 interviewers, ranged from good to excellent (.63–.84). A cutoff score of 50 on the self-report measure yielded nearly perfect sensitivity and specificity and good-to-excellent agreement between the self-report measure and the interview (.68 –.81). Our interviews were conducted over the Internet, rather than in person; results might have been influenced by self-selection; and interviewing wider samples is warranted. We found that MD can be diagnosed reliably using a structured interview developed for that purpose. The new diagnostic interview showed excellent agreement with a self-report measure for the disorder. Additionally, we identified a useful cutoff score for future self-report research.

This paper presents an inquiry of art products produced by 9 individuals with maladaptive daydreaming who provided pictorial and verbal descriptions of both their condition and themselves. We found that the perceived benefits of maladaptive daydreaming for our respondents included the ownership of a self-controlled means of emotional regulation that served as protection from grim external and internal realities combined with the gratifying joy of an easily accessible internal entertainment mechanism. Although such daydreaming was depicted as an intensely rewarding experience, there was also an allusion to diminished sense of control over the flow of fantasies. The self in the artwork of participants was often represented as a fragmented experience of duality: an inert, and an emotionally dismal, dreary and dysfunctional sense of existence in reality compared to an emotionally rich, lively and pleasurable experience associated with their gratifying states of consciousness. This schism was pictorially conveyed through: (1) graphic boundaries that demarcated the two distinct states of consciousness, (2) a richer palette of colors applied to represent the inner world and (3) thematically, an inner world represented as more busy and rewarding compared to a sense of emptiness or malfunction that emanates from representations of reality.

The article outlines the Multiple-Field-Approach ("Mehr-Felder-Ansatz") in Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy and in psychotherapy in general. This Gestalt theory based approach deals 1) with the conditions under which a secondary phenomenal field (containing a secondary phenomenal ego and a secondary phenomenal environment)  segregates within the primary phenomenal field, 2) with the dynamic field interaction between primary and secondary field and their role in psychotherapy, 3) with psychotherapeutic techniques favouring the segregation and favouring the dissolution of a secondary field .
Some of these phenomena have been discussed as mind-wandering, daydreaming, or - in a pathological context - as dissociation. But it seems that the Gestalt psychological approach presented in this paper has to offer a more promising framework for these phenomena and their dynamics.

Cross-sectional and experimental research have shown that task-unrelated thoughts (i.e., mind wandering) relate to sleep disturbances, but there is little research on whether this association generalizes to the day-level and other kinds of task-unrelated mentation. We employed a longitudinal daily diary design to examine the within-person and between-person associations between three self-report instruments measuring mind wandering, mal-adaptive daydreaming (a condition characterized by having elaborate fantasy daydreams so insistent that they interfere with daily functioning) and sleep disturbances. A final sample of 126 participants self-identified as experiencing maladaptive daydreaming completed up to 8 consecutive daily reports (in total 869 daily observations). The scales showed acceptable to excellent within-person reliability (i.e., systematic day-today change) and excellent between-person reliability. The proportion of between-person variance was 36% for sleep disturbances, 57% for mind wandering, and 75% for maladaptive daydreaming, respectively (the remaining being stochastic and systematic within-person variance). Contrary to our pre-registered hypothesis, maladaptive daydreaming did not significantly predict sleep disturbances the following night, B =-0.00 (SE = 0.04), p = .956. Exploratory analyses indicated that while nightly sleep disturbances predicted mind wandering the following day, B = 0.20 (SE = 0.04), p < .001, it did not significantly predict maladaptive daydreaming the following day, B =-0.04 (SE = 0.05), p = .452. Moreover, daily mind wandering did not significantly predict sleep disturbances the following night, B = 0.02 (SE = 0.05), p = .731. All variables correlated at the between-person level. We discuss the implications concerning the differences between maladaptive daydreaming and mind wandering and the possibility of targeting sleep for mind wandering interventions. PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.

Reality shifting (RS) is a trendy mental activity that emerged abruptly following the flare-up of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and seems to be practiced mainly by members of the post-millennial generation. RS, described as the experience of being able to transcend one&#39;s physical confines and visit alternate, mostly fictional, universes, is discussed by many on Internet platforms. One RS forum boasts over 40,000 members and RS clips on some social media platforms have been viewed over 1.7 billion times. The experience of shifting is reportedly facilitated by specific induction methods involving relaxation, concentration of attention, and autosuggestion. Some practitioners report a strong sense of presence in their desired realities, reified by some who believe in the concrete reality of the alternate world they shift to. One of the most popular alternate universes involves environments adopted from the Harry Potter book and film series. We describe the phenomenology of RS as rep...

ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed childhood 'mental disorder'. A process description of attention is presented, and attention 'deficit' (ADD) is explored in terms of psychological aspects: stimulation, motivation, distraction, emotion, daydreaming, intrusive thoughts, and worry. Not all disruption of attention is dysfunctional. Dysregulation of attention is considered in terms of brain function. Use of medication for ADHD is discussed. Categories of ADD are proposed. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors contributing to the appearance of ADHD symptoms are listed.

This qualitative study describes the lived experience of maladaptive daydreaming (MD), an excessive form of unwanted daydreaming that produces a rewarding experience based on a created fantasy of a parallel reality associated with a profound sense of presence. A total of 21 in-depth interviews with persons who self-identified as struggling with MD were analyzed utilizing a phenomenological approach. Interviewees described how their natural capacity for vivid daydreaming had developed into a time-consuming habit that resulted in serious dysfunction. The phenomenology of MD was typified by complex fantasized mental scenarios that were often laced with emotionally compensatory themes involving competency, social recognition, and support. MD could be activated if several requirements were met. Because social interaction seems to be incompatible with this absorbing mental activity, solitude was necessary. In addition, kinesthetic activity and/or exposure to evocative music also appeared to be essential features. Besides delivering a firsthand description of key characteristics of MD, the study also indicates that MD is associated with dysfunctionality for which participants expressed a substantial need for help.

Purpose of Review The objective of this article is to identify the role of opioid use among survivors of trauma and to characterize the dissociative functions associated with this class of substances. More precisely, this paper will evaluate if the biochemical impact of opioid substances, such as heroin, has particular psychological effects on traumatized users, pertinent to their emotional needs.
Recent Findings Reviewed studies demonstrated not only that the vast majority of opioid use disorder (OUD) patients reported a history of childhood trauma but that dissociation played an important role in both the experience of opioid use and abstinence. Summary Traumatized individuals were more likely to report dissociative experiences during their opioid use (chemical disso- ciation) and were more likely to report dissociative experiences during abstinence. The small body of literature on the inter- relationship between opioid use disorder (OUD) and dissociation suggests that heroin produces powerful sensations that mimic psychogenic dissociation. It might therefore be employed when posttraumatic distress can no longer be regulated by psychogenic mechanisms and when it is available. Future research should explore if OUD treatment can be more efficient following effective resolution of trauma-related dissociation and underlying posttraumatic psychopathology.

"We cannot tell that we are constantly splitting into duplicate selves because our consciousness rides smoothly along only one path in the endlessly forking chains."

This forthcoming paper will explore some highly speculative - even preposterous - but seductively appealing recent models of the physics of time-space and dimensionality.
It will be argued that although these models are seemingly impossible to test in the external world, they may have a profound truth and validity in the internal world of the human unconscious mind.

Psychoanalytic clinical material will be presented which convincingly suggests that we all live, emotionally, just as much in the worlds of possibility as we do in the world of " external reality ". For example, the loss of a baby may bring devastating grief or depression to a mother as much (if not more) for mourning the losses of imagined possible futures for that lost child, and for that potential mother, as for the loss of the  " actual baby. "

Whether or not parallel worlds and alternate realities and timelines exist in the physical world seems highly un-possible, and fraught with infinite contradiction. But in the unconscious world of the cognitive-emotional mind, we may be certain not only of their existence, but of their intense and profound psychological influence. To ignore the importance of a person's hopes and dreams of possibility in the formation of emotionally real losses and joys, even if deeply unconscious, is to forego the chance to truly understand their human self.

Of course, all this leaves wide open the issue of where, in the mind, theories of Physics - indeed of all scientific disciplines - are conceived.

  At the very least, this paper argues the importance of "mental" parallel universes and alternate realities in the formation and perseverance of depressive feelings.

The film "Mr. Nobody" (2009) and others are used to explicate these ideas.

This study explores the recently described phenomenon of Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD) and attempts to enhance the understanding of its features. It documents the experiences of 340 self-identified maladaptive daydreamers who spend excessive amounts of time engaged in mental fantasy worlds, in comparison to 107 controls. Our sample included a total of 447 individuals, aged 13–78, from 45 countries who responded to online announcements. Participants answered quantitative and qualitative questions about their daydreaming habits and completed seven questionnaires assessing mental health symptoms. Findings demonstrated that MD differs significantly from normative daydreaming in terms of quantity, content, experience, controllability, distress, and interference with life functioning. Results also demonstrated that Maladaptive Daydreamers endorsed significantly higher rates of attention deficit, obsessive compulsive and dissociation symptoms than controls. In sum, findings suggested that M...

Database: PsycARTICLES

Journal Article

THE DIRECTED DAYDREAM TECHNIQUE.

MAX HAMMER

Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, Vol 4(4), Nov 1967, 173-181.

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Abstract (Taken from Google Scholar online)

"SCENES ARE SUGGESTED TO THE PATIENT AS BASES FOR DAYDREAMING. THE 5 BASIC PRINCIPLES OF DIRECTED DAYDREAM THERAPY ARE SYMBOL CONFRONTATION, FEEDING, RECONCILIATION, MAGIC FLUIDS, AND EXHAUSTING AND KILLING. ILLUSTRATIVE CASE EXCERPTS ARE GIVEN. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)"

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The main purpose of this paper was to examine whether patients recovering from substance use disorder (R-SUD) engage in an absorptive mental activity known as maladaptive daydreaming (MD). One hundred eighty Israeli Arab men participated in this study. Of them, 100 were R-SUD patients receiving care from a government agency and 80 constituted a non-clinical control sample. We found that individuals recovering from SUD are more likely to report a history of childhood trauma, particularly emotional neglect, as well as current dissociative experiences. Furthermore, we also provided evidence that compared to a matched control group; R-SUD patients tend more to engage in intense and immersive daydreaming that can reach pathological levels (MD). The study also showed that the relationship between traumatic emotional neglect and later dissociation is partially mediated by the propensity for extreme daydreaming. We argue that since the childhood adversities commonly characterize the histories of SUD patients, this group is at an increased risk, not only of trauma-related dissociative disorders but also of maladaptive daydreaming, a less known, distressful form of a dissociative absorption in fantasy.

This study illuminates legitimization efforts in the discourse of individuals who suffer from excessive, uncontrolled daydreaming: a contested mental condition that has not yet been recognized by the medical establishment. It aims to explore the rhetorical maneuvers employed by these " Maladaptive Daydreamers " in 35 email exchanges with the second author and two petitions, submitted to the American Psychiatric Association and to the UK Parliament, with a demand for recognition. Our analysis, anchored theoretically and methodologically in Critical Discourse Analysis, identified several verbal strategies employed by the participants to persuade their interlocutors about the realness of their suffering. The main strategies were clustered into three dimensions: (1) professional—appealing to the audience's professional identity as scientist-practitioner and presenting shared knowledge; (2) social—forming a joint consensus group, a coalition or a partnership; (3) psychological—appealing to the interlocutor's emotions through gratitude, self-disclosure or humor. This bottom-up analysis, positions individuals' claims as a starting point for knowledge-dissemination and institutional change and blurs the modern dichotomy between the objects and subjects of medical gaze.

Abstract In this study, we analyzed the responses of 539 adults who met an evidence-based criterion of probable maladaptive daydreaming (MD) and met the description of at least one of the following personality facets: grandiosity, separation insecurity, and anhedonia. Respondents reporting grandiosity tended to use their fantasies as a means for wish-fulfillment for power and dominance, while respondents characterized by separation insecurity fantasized more about relationships with others. Their fantasies often featured an idealized relationship, sometimes of love, or an idealized version of their own family. Separation-anxious individuals reported fantasies in which they received extra attention on account of illness, vulnerability, or neediness. Respondents who reported characteristics of anhedonia were more likely to use daydreaming as a distraction from an unpleasant reality and gravitated to fantasies experienced as rewarding. The daydreams of respondents with anhedonia tended to feature themes of escape and physical violence. Our data show that particular personality facets can uniquely distinguish the functions and contents of fantasies in MD. Our findings suggest that maladaptive daydreaming may have a compensatory role in regulating unmet personal needs.

Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) is a newly described mental disorder characterized by extensive mental fantasy activity featuring addiction-like longing for fantasizing, accompanying repetitive movement, and feeling hindered in everyday life. This study describes the first validation of a non-English version of the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (MDS) and provides additional evidence for MD as a clinical phenomenon. The Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale-Hebrew version (MDS-H) is an adaptation of the 14-item English MDS (Somer, Lehrfeld, Bigelsen, & Jopp, 2016), a self-report questionnaire developed on the basis of qualitative information provided by self-identified maladaptive daydreamers (MDers). The MDS-H was administered to 280 individuals aged 13 to 73 years, including 45 self-identified MDers. Findings confirmed the expected 3-factorial structure, scalar invariance in comparison to the English MDS validation sample, and good psychometric properties. MDS-H scores were associated with dissociation, obsessive-compulsive behavior, and attentiondeficit/hyperactivity. Given high sensitivity and specificity separating MDers and non-MDers, the MDS-H represents a useful tool to assess MD among Hebrew speakers, suggesting the relevance of MD in a non-English speaking culture, and highlighting the potential value of the MDS for world-wide investigation of this condition.