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Research on color in dreams indicates that most dreams contain color elements. However, just as color is generally taken for granted in waking life, color elements in dreams tend to be unnoticed or deemphasized by the dreamer. Hence, when color has been spontaneously reported by the dreamer, it can be said to have been hypercathected for definite psychological reasons. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the past research on the incidence and interpretation of spontaneously reported color elements in the dreams of psychoanalytic patients. In addition, the color dream of a patient in psychoanalytic therapy is presented, to explore the thesis that spontaneously reported color dreams often represent the ego's attempts to work through, assimilate, and synthesize previously repressed material which has recently begun to emerge in the psychoanalytic situation. Thus, in recognizing the emergence of previously warded-off, tension-arousing material, the ego reacts with an affective signal-the color element in the dream.
First to be reviewed is some of the research on the incidence of color in dreams.
In a comprehensive psychological investigation of over 3,000 dreams, Hall (1) reported that 29% were in color or contained at least some color, whereas the rest contained no color. The women in the sample reported more indications of color (31%) than did the men (24%). Hall stated that “many people never experience color in dreams; on the other hand, a few have all their dreams in color” (p. 62). Since he used a paper-and-pencil questionnaire to gather data and did not verbally probe subjects with respect to the incidence of color elements in their dreams, Hall's findings,