Lewin's extension of dream psychology into the study of the narcissistic neuroses is considered as a model which may be helpful in explaining certain aspects of psychosomatic disorders. In this framework, a physiological dysfunction is considered to function as a mechanism of defence against the latent passive wish—the maintenance of a regressive breast cathexis—in the same way that hypomania or depression disguises and denies the latently existing wish for satisfying narcissistic sleep.

The conflict between the waking forces, which in the psychosomatic disorders are expressed by physiological dysfunction, and the wish to sleep is related to a disturbance of the wishes of the oral triad of Lewin. For example, a fixation on disappointment of the wish to eat would interfere with the gratification of the oral wish to achieve the sleep of satiation.

(Author's summary).