ABSTRACT

The explanatory models and insights developed by psychoanalysis can also be of interest to neuroscientists and raise specific research questions. This chapter provides a summary of an innovative attempt to combine clinical psychoanalytical studies on changes in the manifest dreams of an analysand treated as part of the LAC study, and the extra-clinical investigation of the changes of dreams in the sleep laboratory. Neurobiological research will make essential contribution in the future to the discovery of mechanisms of action in specific psychotherapeutic interventions for the identification of predicators of responsiveness in psychotherapy and to obtaining risk indicators for relapse probability. Generally speaking, psychotherapists—especially psychoanalysts—work with what can be remembered and with recurring—usually dysfunctional—behaviours and experiences. One great advantage of the psychoanalytical clinical "research" on dreams continues to be the understanding of the meaning of a dream in cooperation with the dreamer—the patient.