Power and helplessness in psychoanalytic work

Reports of dreams always had a special place in psychoanalytic work. In his remarks on the reporting of dreams in sessions Klauber (1969) firmly held the opinion that an internal conflict is mobilized in which the ego tries to find a tolerable attitude towards the conflict. This case study uses the verbatim protocols of a completely tape-recorded psychoanalytic treatment and a detailed discussion on the topic of power and powerlessness in analytic work. The selected passages from the transcripts allow the reconstruction of the topic over a longer time span. What the patient communicates to the analyst in the transferential relationship is the same as what he "says" to him in his dream narratives but in a different mode using symbolic language in the presentative mode. The hypothesis of the functional unity of dream and transference implies that the actual transference situation functions as a kind of day residue and likewise shapes the selection of what can be dreamt of. These various aspects of the functional relationship of dream and transference contribute to the fact that relating a dream in the analytic situation is highly specific.