An analytic study of dreams of falling shows they are based on a wish to give up effort or flee from responsibility combined with spite and hostility directed against the self. For instance, a man who got into rages and had a wish to abandon his family developed anxiety dreams of falling. In milder cases, such as patients who are merely overworked and not threatened with serious regression or excessive rage, dreams of shorter falls or gentle descents are more typical. Thus the qualitative form of the manifest content varies with the quantitative balance between the id and ego-superego forces. Height in the dream may be symbolic of status or success because these qualities are associated with the height of the parents in contrast to the lowness of the child.