ABSTRACT
This chapter presents evidence for a model of the development of self reflection that takes into account the bidirectional relationship of the physiological patterning of rapid eye movement sleep and maternal sensitivity within the development of the attachment relationship. It focuses on the multiple forces that contribute to the nightmare in the context of the analytic situation, itself conceptualised as a variant of the dream. The chapter looks at the level of endogenous stimulation in conjunction with defensive style allowed us to make predictions about an individual’s dream experience, apart from any specifics of the dream’s content. Processes of attachment have been shaped by, and in turn regulate the ways in which endogenous stimulation is experienced, cognised, and symbolised. Instead, as S. J Ellman has noted, the psychophysiological studies of dreams, at least potentially, provide a bridge between Sigmund Freud’s quantitative notions of drive and the effects of endogenous stimulation on mentation.
