"I was in a classroom teaching young women several things about cosmetics, hair care, etc. I remember getting into a big discussion on the virtues of natural hair brushes vs. nylon ones and the correct way to brush hair. The class was about 30 women about age 18 in a classroom much like we had in high school (fixed desks, and old building). The women all paid attention and discussed things well."

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The coding of characters raises somewhat of a problem in this dream. It is clear that it is a group character and that the group consists of all females. Since no indication was given of any sort that he might be familiar with any of these young women, the group was coded as consisting of strangers. There is some question about age, but since the statement about age 18 was made, this information was used to code the group as an adult one. It will be recalled that age 13 through 17 is the age range covered in the teenage subclass. Since 18-year-olds are considered adults, this was the coding assigned here. It is possible that some of the women in this group may have been younger than 18, but our convention has been to code a group in accordance with the characteristics possessed by the majority of the members.

The only social interaction which occurred was a friendly one. This was coded as an F4 because it was considered that the dreamer was performing a helpful act by instructing the women about personal grooming. Even though such instruction is part of his employment role as a Fuller Brush man, rule #1 under the coding rules for friendliness states that "It is considered to be a friendly act even though the befriender may be acting in a societal or professional role."

In contrast to most dreams, this dream contains a paucity of activity. The only activity involved is a mutual verbal discussion that takes place between the dreamer and the young women on the virtues of various types of hair brushes.

It is clear that the setting was an indoor one in a classroom; a Q code was given for familiarity because there is some doubt as to whether the dreamer has ever been in this setting before. On the other hand, there is the possibility that he may use this classroom more or less regularly, and it may even be that the dreamer perceived it as the same classroom that he attended in high school. Since a Q code is intended specifically to reflect these situations where it cannot be ascertained from the report how familiar a setting is, it was the code given here.

In the Objects column, the two AV codes for this dream were given for the classroom and old (high school) building. The four HH codes are for cosmetics, natural bristle hair brushes, nylon brushes, and desks. The BH code is for mentioning hair. The dreamer's high school was not coded because it is contained within the coding for building.

Under modifiers, the I+ code was assigned for the "big" discussion. Big in this sentence does not refer to size but to a quality of intensity. The A+ code was given for describing the building as old. Although the comment that the women discussed things well might seem to be an evaluative statement, it was not coded as such because it could not be considered as belonging in either the aesthetic or moral realm of evaluation. The same rationale explains why teaching the women the correct way to brush hair was not coded. There are no scorable elements for any of the remaining scales.

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