Visual dream screen phenomena were presented by seven analysands, all of whom suffered from borderline states or schizophrenia. From the information available from their analysis, a tentative hypothesis is offered that dream screen experiences appear in therapy when patients reach the state of development when narcissistic identification is giving way to true object relationships via the transference, there is a threat of loss of the new object, and an event occurs in the environment which strongly reminds the analysand of a severe childhood trauma interpreted as desertion by the mother or her surrogate.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS