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March 16, 1964. COLOR IN DREAMS. Harold Blum, M.D.
This paper investigates the metapsychology of color in dreams in a clinical context, integrating previous studies and proposing new theoretical formulations. Color vision is an autonomous ego function with a distinct phylogenetic and physiological development. Current research suggests that it may be present in the 'original' dream imagery but usually fades rapidly in the remembered dream. When color is reported spontaneously in the manifest dream content, it has received additional cathexis and serves definite psychological functions. Clinical and experimental evidence indicates that color is more likely to appear in dreams where there is ego or superego re-enforcement of voyeurism or color perception. Visual sensory sensitivity, strong external color stimulation, or regressive shifts in the perceptual apparatus might also contribute to a heightened perceptual awareness of color. Colors derive from memories of perceptions but are selectively used by the dream work. The dream and its day residues cannot be artificially isolated from the color psychology of waking perception and imagery; defensive alterations in hue, amount, or location may occur.
Color in dreams may have a complex multiple function, frequently used by the ego for both camouflage and communication—it can conceal or reveal in subtle shades or blinding glare. Because of the color differences of the skin, mucous membranes of the orifices, and internal body contents such as blood, feces, and urine, color may be used to contrast and differentiate inner and outer parts of the body: it is incorporated in the total body image and may be important in self-representation and identity, including sexual identity.
As a corollary, the comparison of the color of the skin, hair, and eyes may be employed in the differentiation of the self from object, or in an identification with an object. Structurally, dream color may also represent instinctual strivings a