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Psychoanalysts have long believed, although not always with conviction, in the special importance of dreams reported early in psychoanalysis. Similar claims have been made for the first dream. We suggest that further clinical confirmation is required to establish validation of these speculations.
We will review the topic and present an unusual case which touches on the issues, a case which could be said to report two first “first dreams.” The first one is the first current dream spontaneously reported; the second one, reported later in the same session, is the first dream known to have been dreamt during analysis. The manifest content and associations of both dreams centered on the theme of violence.
Freud first discussed the subject in 1909 when he (1909) quoted Adler's observation of the “peculiar importance which attaches to the very first communications made by patients.” Two years later, Freud (1911) referred to initial dreams when he stated: “These initial dreams may be described as unsophisticated; they betray a great deal to the listener, like the dreams of so-called healthy people” (p. 95).
Saul (1940) wrote that “early dreams are more revelatory because they are not yet so much influenced by interpretations and resistance material.” He also postulated that by “analyzing the first ten current dreams with their associations and reviewing them for common features in the conflict situations, role of the ego and types of defense,