Dreams and Trauma Changes in the Manifest Dreams in Psychoanalytic Treatments – A Psychoanalytic Outcome Measure
Tamara Fischmann, Gilles Ambresin, Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber
Frontiers in Psychology September 14, 2021 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.678440 (opens in new tab) via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractTransformation of manifest dreams, analyzed with a precise empirical coding system, may serve as a promising indicator of therapeutic changes in unconscious mental functioning during psychoanalysis. The Zurich Dream Process Coding System (ZDPCS), grounded in a dream generation model by Moser and von Zeppelin that integrates interdisciplinary sleep and dream research, provides a valid and reliable method for this analysis. Two dreams from a severely traumatized, chronically depressed patient—one from the beginning and one from the third year of the LAC Depression Study—were analyzed using the ZDPCS. The authors hypothesize that dream transformation measured by this system results from memory processes involving traumatic embodied memories during dreaming.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Case study Case report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1 |
| Population | Severely traumatized, chronically depressed patient from the LAC Depression Study |
| Duration | Three years |
| Keywords | Dream Psychoanalytic theory Psychology Psychoanalysis Unconscious mind |
| Citations | 9 |
| Key finding | Transformation in manifest dreams, as measured by the Zurich Dream Process Coding System, may indicate therapeutic changes in unconscious mental functioning. |
Abstract
Although psychoanalysts are interested in symptom reduction as an outcome, they are looking for instruments to measure sustaining changes in the unconscious mental functioning. In this article it is discussed that conceptually well-founded transformation of manifest dreams analyzed with precise empirical methods could be considered as a promising indicator for such therapeutic changes. We are summarizing a dream generation model by Moser and von Zeppelin which has integrated a large interdisciplinary knowledge base of contemporary dream and sleep research. Based on this model the authors have developed a valid and reliable coding system for analyzing manifest dreams, the Zurich Dream Process Coding System (ZDPCS). One exemplary dream from the beginning and one from the third year of a severely traumatized, chronic depressed patient from the LAC Depression Study collected in psychoanalytic sessions as well as in the sleep laboratory have been analyzed applying the ZDPCS. Authors hypothesize that transformation in dreams as measured with the ZDPCS is the result of memory processes of traumatic embodied memories in the state of dreaming.