Analytic process and dreaming about analysis

• Published in: International journal of psychoanalysis Vol. 97; no. 6; pp. 1479 - 1497
• Main Author: Sirois, François
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Routledge 01.12.2016; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Institute of Psychoanalysis (British); Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Adult; Analysts; analytic process; Anxiety; Distortion; Dreaming; Dreams; Dreams - psychology; Elaboration; Female; Humans; Professional-Patient Relations; Psychoanalytic Therapy - methods; Transference; Transference (Psychology); transference neurosis; transference neurosis; analytic process; dreams
• ISSN: 0020-7578; 1745-8315; 1745-8315
• DOI: 10.1111/1745-8315.12529

Dreams about the analytic session feature a manifest content in which the analytic setting is subject to distortion while the analyst appears undisguised. Such dreams are a consistent yet infrequent occurrence in most analyses. Their specificity consists in never reproducing the material conditions of the analysis as such. This paper puts forward the following hypothesis: dreams about the session relate to some aspects of the analyst's activity. In this sense, such dreams are indicative of the transference neurosis, prefiguring transference resistances to the analytic elaboration of key conflicts. The parts taken by the patient and by the analyst are discussed in terms of their ability to signal a deepening of the analysis.