Illness Dreams: Interpreting Clinical Approaches From Greek Antiquity to Modernity

Abstract

This hermeneutic study explored the phenomenon of illness dreams in the Western canon throughout history via examination of relevant texts which ranged from ancient Greece to contemporary forms of analysis. An illness dream was defined as one that predicts an illness, communicates that an illness is present, or provides information about the state or prognosis of an illness. Six characteristics of illness dreams and surrounding phenomena were derived from the work of Vasily Kasatkin: 1) a disruption to the typical sleep and/or dreaming pattern of the dreamer; 2) disturbing, often vivid visual imagery; 3) imagery and/or content that symbolizes the illness; 4) negative emotions, especially anxiety, fear, and sadness; 5) evolution of visual images and scenes that change in relation to the severity of the pathological process; 6) in late state terminal disease, dreams commonly decrease in frequency and ultimately cease altogether. Three of Kasatkin’s characteristics were present in four of the five illness dream examples analyzed. Additionally, three contemporary psychotherapeutic treatments that focused on clinical work with illness dreams were reviewed.