Dreams as Empirical Data: Siblings' Dreams and Fantasies About Their Disabled Sisters and Brothers

Until recently, most experts in the area of dreams and dream analysis held the view that dreams must be analyzed and worked with by professionals in the area of psychoanalysis or psychology, or by sleep experts. For sociologists, subjective, nonquantifiable topics such as dreams and daydreams were not considered valid areas of inquiry. But these areas can provide a way‐of‐knowing that has not been explored; these nighttime visions can contribute a new source of data about issues that deeply concern people. This article uses dreams and conscious daydreams about disabled brothers and sisters as an example of the type of information that could be gleaned if we used dreams as empirical data. Siblings of disabled individuals, originally recruited for another research project, were queried about their dreams and fantasies of the disabled sister or brother. In the respondents' dreams (both awake and sleeping) a number of themes emerged: issues that came up only when they discussed their dreams. These themes seem connected with the waking reality of having a disabled siblings; they include: (1) previews of anticipated experiences, (2) a desire to be a savior and, consequently, to be respected for rescuing the handicapperl person, (3) a wish to have the handicapper sibling escape from the dilemma of disability, (4) the notion that someone or something (a fairy godmother) will change things, (5) sorrow about the disability or death, and (6) guilt that they were “normal” and the sibling was disabled.