Fifty patients at a Veterans Administration acute psychiatric in-patient facility reported at the time of admission that they suffered from nightmares, dreams accompanied by sufficient anxiety to awaken the dreamer. All volunteered to answer a questionnaire and participate in a research interview. The investigators found that the dreams of psychotic patients provided no new clinical material. Patients who suffered from a borderline personality disorder frequently found that their nightmares offered insights into their histories, particularly memories of traumatic events, that were not available to them in any other form. These dreams lacked the splitting and fragmentation that are characteristic of the borderline state. They were comprehensive, coherent, and had an identifiable latent content that was usually related to current and familial trauma. The personality disorder patients proved eager to work on their dreams outside the research setting despite their experience that the process entailed considerable distress, since it proved to be a vehicle for