The author considered it appropriate to publish
an updated and
revised text, in relation to the
first and only publication on the
subject in this
journal, which dates from 1983.
She starts with the amazing fact
that the image of the dreaming
person, in which the person recognizes
him or herself consciously, can
be observed
in all dreams.
She also finds that the self-image
in dreams has a decisive role in
the structuring of the dream, and
functions as a guardian of sleep and of
dreaming.
She differentiates sleep anxiety
from dream anxiety and discusses
the function of the self-image in relation
to each of these situations.
Consideration of different clinical
material leads her to affirm that
she can detect three different
types of presentation: the figured self-image,
the
spatial self-image and the spectator
self-image.
In relation to the ways the self-image
in dreams is presented in the
neuroses and in narcissistic disturbances,
she offers two contrasting clinical
examples.
The author concludes with theoretical
hypotheses concerning the symbolic
defect in narcissistic disorders.
In clinical work with the neuroses, she highlights the difficulties
for
accessing analysis of the dream
representation of the self, a
sensitive
narcissistic point, and a point
of reference and suture between
the manifest
and the latent.
Finally, she discusses the interplay
of looks that develops between
the different dissociations of
the ego in sleeping and in dreaming:
the sleeping
ego, the dreaming ego, the ego
dreamt of and the waking ego. |