ABSTRACT
In a now classic paper, Isakower (1938) described a relatively rare but intriguing complex of sensory phenomena recalled and reported by certain of his patients as occurring in the twilight state of consciousness just prior to their entering sleep. These phenomena, taken together, appeared so closely to recapitulate precognitive elements of nursing at the breast that they were considered by Isakower, and thereafter, as parts of a single experience. The predominant theme in the subsequent psychoanalytic literature on the subject has been an effort to establish more precisely the psychodynamic nature and etiology of this hypnogogic event by examining the personality structure of those patients who, during the course of an analysis, either report it as a childhood memory or reexperience the event itself.
