Problem configurations that unfolded in the course of two psychoanalyses had been contained in initial dreams (and their variations), although in highly condensed form. This prompted the author to reflect on the function of initial dreams and their reporting. The first dream report generally follows the establishment of a positive transference; the initial dream is still 'naïve' and therefore informative—a gift to the therapist. It represents the attempt of the weakened ego to arrive at a new integration under the specific conditions of sleep (blocked motility), to which the conditions of the treatment (externalization of superego components) correspond. As the analysis progresses, the attained psychic equilibrium is disturbed and new defenses are called forth, which no longer admit of the naïveté of the initial dream.