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DISCUSSION: Dr. Kenneth Calder told of two dreams from his practice; one a traumatic dream, the other a punishment dream. Both served as a compromise for the structural components. He wondered whether this structural aspect of wish-fulfilment might not be more profitable than the topographical aspect.
Dr. Jacob Arlow suggested that the repetition of traumatic experiences might be not only an effort toward mastery, but also a stimulating recollection, allowing gratification of erotic, masochistic, or aggressive fantasies for the purpose of the pleasure involved. Attempts to dissipate the trauma may be offset by the persistence of pleasurable infantile wishes.
Dr. Martin Wangh discussed the style of dreaming. He was gratified by the fact that in Dr. Horowitz's presentation not only the style of dreaming but the style of general behavior in the analysis was described. The two should parallel each other, and both should be described.
Dr. Stewart stated that he had not intended to ignore the role of guilt, punishment, or wish-fulfilment in the anxiety dream, but rather to suggest the role of another component; namely, that a traumatic experience may be followed by an effort toward working through in the dream and that this can be accomplished by hallucinatory wish-fulfilment being attached to the event. This would be the 'original function' of the dream as described by Freud. The mastery may be effected by the use of id impulses, which later can become the source of anxiety, requiring further dream work for defensive purposes. Dr. Horowitz said that he had treated the patient's description of some dreams as ordinary and others as unusual. The patient associated to the unusual dreams the fact that they seemed very real, and said, 'I know that they were something real'.
Dr. Rudolph Loewenstein felt that in a close study of the manifest content of the dreams presented by Dr. Horowitz it might be possible to recognize their relationship to traumatic events because they