Can Psychoanalytic Treatment Change Dreams?

There seems to be no consensus as to whether psychoanalytic treatment can induce consistent changes in dreams even though most analysts use changes in dreams to judge their patients' progress. Some analysts have identified “dreams of recovery” or dreams which “signal” a time for termination. Others have pointed out that dream distortion lessens during analysis and dreams become easier to interpret due to the latent and manifest content becoming more closely integrated. Alexander (1961) points out that in terminal dreams the neurotic conflict becomes circumscribed or “sequestered.” Sharpe (1946) emphasized that during analysis the dreamer's affective response to a dream is lessened because the material has become familiar so he is comfortable in recognizing and accepting his infantile wishes. Glover (1955) observed that “review dreams” occur after a transference neurosis develops, and that “some of the manifest content can be readily interpreted as an assessment of the patient's progress in overcoming his difficulties.” Dewald (1972) notes “an increasing freedom and directness with which the underlying, dream thoughts and wishes can be expressed” as an indication of structural change during psychoanalysis. Saul (1972) states that “toward the end of a successful analysis, as resolution progresses, [there occurs] a type of dream [which] tends to reflect the solution more clearly and usually more realistically; there is less disguise and distortion, and the analyst and other emotionally-charged persons appear more and more openly.”

Wash and Cavenar (1978) have recently observed that certain neurotic patients in psychoanalysis enhance their low self-esteem by first experiencing “analyst-soothing,” and then finally by developing a “self-soothing function” which can be found in their