AbstractThe neurocognitive theory of dreaming posits that there is a specific neural network for dreaming and that dream content is continuous with a dreamer's waking concerns. This article extends this model of dreaming by arguing that the continuity principle applies not only to intrapsychic states; dream content also frequently indexes significant shifts in the cultural atmosphere. A prominent but understudied exemplar of such indices is the appearance of media content in dreams. This article underscores such media content as an area worthy of anthropological scrutiny and focuses on celebrity dreams among US college students as a site for theorizing the imbrication of dreaming, self, and culture. It is argued that celebrity dreams index recent and dramatic shifts in media ecologies (including embodied engagement with smartphones and formative encounters with reality television) as well as middle‐class young women's interiorized struggles over the expectations and exhortations associated with mounting a neoliberal and feminine public self.
