The Inner Voice in Dreams

ABSTRACT

This paper introduces a dream component I refer to as an inner voice within dreams; i.e., a splitting of the self into an experiencing subject immersed in the dream and an inner observer that comments on and interprets elements of the dream. The inner voice is noticeable in lucid dreams, but not necessarily only in them. The author argues that Freud’s theories of day residue and secondary revision need to be extended since there is greater continuity between sleep and waking states than Freud presumed. Contemporary dream theories, particularly Bion’s, are reviewed. The unique clinical contribution of this paper is the use of the inner voice to deepen the analytic process by facilitating development of the patient’s inner consciousness and capacity to discern and understand their own unconscious dream material. Encouraging patients to incorporate the inner observer’s self-analysis into the analytic session enriches the interpretation of dream content and empowers the patient as an active agent.

This article is referred to by:

Multiple Selves and the Nature of Dreaming

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zvi Steve Yadin

Zvi Steve Yadin, Ph.D., Ph.D., PMHNP, is in private practice in psychiatry and psychoanalysis on Long Island, New York. He holds Doctorates in Clinical Psychology and Hebrew Literature, and a Post Doc. Diploma in Psychoanalysis. He was a professor at Adelphi University and Long Island University, and a clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Stony Brook University, NY.