Typical dreams with data derived from four patients were studied. These dreams tend to be recurrent, easily recalled, and difficult to interpret by ordinary association techniques. Examples include the object endangered, falling through space, being chased, teeth falling out, snakes, and being rescued. An attempt is made to correlate the findings in these four subjects with phenomena in the temporal lobe epileptic. In such patients, the recurrent dream usually has a painful feeling tone. Although three of the cases had abnormal wave forms in their all-night electroencephalograms, there were no epileptiform abnormalities.

The underlying question raised by the author is why certain individuals are more prone to the appearance of typical dreams. Various psychogenic explanations are put forth: the relationship to prior trauma, the mastery of traumatic experiences, and the existence of a larger pool of painful memories. The paper ends quite inconclusively with alternative considerations of neurophysiological variations.