The Adaptation Function of Dreams and the Waking Work: A Modern Ego Psychology View

ABSTRACT

This article is about the adaptive function of dreams. It applies Hartmann’s descriptions of autonomous ego functions, especially the synthetic function of the ego, to the dream’s use of reality and to the use of dreams for adaptation; to reality and to neurotic conflict. This paper poses a specific synthetic function of the ego to be called the waking work in which the dream is applied upon awakening to problems of adaptation, growth and development.

KEYWORDS:

• Adaptation
• ego
• ego psychology
• dreams
• dream-work
• Hartmann

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (https://doi.org/10.1080/07351690.2024.2352514).

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Eric R. Marcus

Eric R. Marcus, M.D., is a training and supervising analyst at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, where he was the director for ten years. He is a professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, the American College of Psychoanalysts, The New York Psychiatric Society, The American Board of Psychoanalysis and the Center for Advanced Psychoanalytic Studies. For twenty seven years he was director of medical student education for the department of psychiatry of Columbia University. During that time, he studied the stages of development of medical student empathic capacity by looking at their dreams about medical school and residency training. The study applied psychodynamic techniques to social science research. His teaching awards include the Columbia University President’s Teaching Award, the first Roeske teaching award of the American Psychiatric Association, the first Shabshin teaching award of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the regional teaching award of the Association for Academic Psychiatry, and numerous College of Physician’s and Surgeons teaching awards including Commencement Speaker. His latest book is Psychosis and Near Psychosis: Ego Function, Symbol Structure, Treatment, revised third edition (2017, Routledge). The first edition won The Hartmann Prize of The New York Psychoanalytic Institute.