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Previous studies by the same authors demonstrated affective disturbances of subjects on hearing their own voices whether they were aware of it or not. This was seen as a momentary startle in regarding their voices as perceptual stimuli with aspects of character and personality not recognized while speaking. The present study, quite well controlled, repeats one done a few years ago. The results were the same. During sleep, when a subject hears his own voice, the manifest content presents the dreamer or principal figure as active, assertive, and independent. When another person's voice is presented with the same content, the dreamer is pictured in a passive role.
A number of explanations are postulated. Since the voice functions genetically in the control and modulation of behavior, hearing one's own voice bears the implication of achieving mastery. Hearing another's voice, with its connotations of command, prohibition, and permission, leads to a passive role. The psychophysiological response produced on hearing one's own voice leads to a heightened activation productive of an active role in the dream. Since the state of defensiveness toward one's own needs and wishes is diminished in sleep, the subject's discrimination between his own voice and those of others is enhanced as compared to the waking state.