It has been the purpose of this study to explore the potentialities of a developmental approach to children's nightmares, viewing the phenomenon as one to which most children are subject at some time in their lives. I have presented case material to demonstrate how rich a source of information study of the nightmare can be for advancing our understanding of the deepest anxieties and conflicts of childhood. Evidence has been put forth to support the proposition that the extreme intensity of nightmarish anxiety stems not only from the child's current conflicts, but also from those associated fears dating from an earlier period that are reactivated under the regressive and isolated conditions of sleep. It is this link with an earlier time, a time when the ego was more vulnerable, less resourceful and less firmly grounded in a separate reality, that, in my opinion, accounts for the overwhelming character

of fear that all nightmares seem to possess in some measure.