The Meaning of Dreams in the Psychotic State
Theoretical Considerations and Clinical Applications
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8972151 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paola Capozzi (corresponding author), Franco De Masi, Francode Masi |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 82 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 933-952 |
| Publication date | 2001-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1516/h4x5-52fm-8fwn-gq52 |
| PMID | 11723959 |
| OpenAlex | W2150574800 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 6 |
The authors consider that the Freudian theory of dreams is not directly applicable to psychotic and borderline patients with their constantly varying states of mental integration. Because these patients' dreams lack associations, the usual psychoanalytic approach cannot be used to ascertain their meaning. After reviewing the literature on the specific quality of dreams in the psychotic state, the authors point out that such dreams have nothing to do with the metaphorical language of the dream work but instead express the concreteness of the hallucinatory construction. For this reason, a dream's meaning may fail to be understood by the patient even if it seems clear to an observer. Yet the analyst's reception of a 'psychotic dream' is a unique and essential source of valuable information on the manner of construction of the delusional system, allowing analytic work on the psychotic nucleus. In the authors' view, such dreams may help the analyst and the patient--while still lucid--to acquire insight, thus affording a stable foundation for emergence from psychosis. The paper includes some case histories, in one of which a psychotic female patient is enabled by work on dreams to reconstruct a psychotic episode and thereby to ward off an imminent fresh lapse into psychosis
Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Concreteness · Delusion · Dream · Epistemology · Freudian slip · Meaning (existential · Nothing · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Psychosis · Psychotherapist · Reality testing · Schizophrenia (object-oriented programming · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
Differentiation of dreams dreamt by the psychotic and the non-psychotic personalities
Psychosis and psychotic functioning in adolescence
The meaning of dreams in the psychotic state
On the nature of intuitive and delusional thought
Delusion and bi‐ocular vision
A psychoanalytic look at repetitive outbreaks of brief psychosis
Psychotic withdrawal and the overthrow of psychic reality
Psychosis and analytic therapy
Reporting a dream accompanying an enactment in the transference situation
When does a dream begin to ‘have meaning’? Linguistic constraints and significant moments in the construction of the meaning of a dream
A hypothesis on the enigmatic nature of psychosis
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,46 |
| Citation span | 2002 - 2025 (24) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |