There is comparatively little scientific work available on the dreams of patients with low-level organization. Nevertheless, authors have repeatedly pointed out the significant distinction between “classic” neurotic dreams and poorly structured dreams. This applies primarily to clinical treatment and content, rather than to affect regulation within dreams. Furthermore, a psychoanalytic understanding of borderline personality organization is typically associated with traumatic object relations and impaired affect regulation. At the intersection of empirical dream and psychotherapy process research, this study therefore investigates the following questions:
Does affect regulation within the dreams of patients with borderline personality organization differ from that of patients with neurotic personality organization?
Do dreams change over the course of therapy?
Do specific patient and process variables covary with possible changes in dreams during therapy?
This research offers an exciting parallel between the re-enactment of earlier complex relationship experiences in interactive psychotherapeutic events on the one hand and the micro world of dreams (Moser & Hortig, 2019) on the other.
The data is based on fully audio- and video-documented psychoanalytic treatments, from which the dream reports are transcribed. Affect regulation in dreams is assessed using the Zurich Dream Process Coding System (ZDPCS; Moser & Hortig, 2019; Moser & von Zeppelin, 1996). Within the therapeutic process, the focus is primarily on defense mechanisms used by patients and the therapeutic alliance.
Results:
In summary, the project demonstrates central connections between the functional level of personality organization and the capacities for affect regulation in dreams. Dreams of patients with borderline and neurotic personality organization could be distinguished on the basis of two specific dimensions. Dreams of patients with a low level of personality function reflected an increased need for security and limited flexibility in affect regulation. In the therapeutic process of patients with borderline personality organization, these dream parameters changed and became similar to the values of the neurotic sample.
Original language: German