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Since 1909 when Herbert Silberer (13) first reported on "A Method of Producing and Observing Symbolic Hallucinations," the discussion about the nature of these phenomena has continued with undiminished interest. Silberer was of the opinion that these hypnagogic hallucinations could be understood as visual allegorical representations of a self-observation or of other more or less theoretical ideas which had preceded them; in this he was supported by Freud (7) and Fenichel (6). Other authors—Stekel (16), Künkel (10), and Bergler (4)—were able to subject some of those hypnagogic hallucinations to an analysis of the same depth as dreams. Another group of authors—Isakower (9), Lewin (11) and Spitz (14)—were inclined to interpret some of these hypnagogic hallucinations as regressions to very early oral experiences.
Most of these hypnagogic hallucinations are similar to "typical" dreams in that the patients are usually unable to bring associations to them. Heeding Freud's (7) warning against interpreting dreams on the basis of the interpreter's associations, I decided to study hypnagogic hallucinations by analyzing those cases where hypnagogic hallucinations (either single or in pairs) were followed by a dream that yielded associations. Of the data which I have collected since 1929, I want to give four examples. I will not attempt to give a complete interpretation of the dreams but rather restrict myself to those associations which throw light on the meaning of the preceding hypnagogic hallucination.
A young man, suffering from ulcerative colitis and sexual disturbances, reported that since his childhood, whenever he had