Dreams Stimulated by the Analyst-Patient Relationship

The first dream during analytic therapy, as well as obvious “transference” dreams, recurrent dreams, and dream sequences within a particular night or several successive nights, have been the subjects of much psychoanalytic literature and discussion, while dreams in other, special, situations have received less attention.

This article describes two dreams clearly related to immediately preceding important changes in the overt and inner therapist-patient relationship. In each example an unusual stimulus occurs during a scheduled session (a). A dream, apparently centering around the stimulus, is presented and worked on in the next session (b); and in the third session (c) of the sequence another dream(s) is central and leads further towards resolution. (Counter-transferential aspects lie beyond the scope of this article.)

Example 1. John L., a 30-year-old lawyer, came with symptoms of general sexual inhibition, marked sexual impotence, and unas-sertiveness in the courtroom. He had been brought up in a harsh religious atmosphere. He described feeling, occasionally, as if there were heavy weights on his shoulders since preadolescence. These feelings were often associated with masturbatory impulses. After eight months of treatment directed at uncovering his harsh introjects from childhood-familial and otherwise—he was able to have intercourse with complete success for the first time in his life. (Therapy had, however, largely been intellectualized, and an attempt to have him enter group had resulted in flight after one group session, some months earlier.) The sexual relationship was