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In a serial study by Beck and Hurvich2of the consecutive dreams of patients in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, it was observed that the depressed patients reported a certain class of unpleasant dreams with a notable degree of frequency. A systematic analysis of the data indicated that this class of dreams constituted a significantly higher proportion of the dreams reported by each of the depressed patients than of those reported by a matched group of nondepressed patients. The distinctive characteristic of this class of dreams was that in the manifest content the dreamer was portrayed as being the recipient of a painful experience, such as being disappointed, rejected, or injured. On the basis of the patients' directed associations to these unpleasant dream elements as well as other clinical material, including their free associations, it was felt that these dream themes were an expression of a persistent
Aaron T. Beck (Wed,) studied this question.