Exploration of nightmares in hospital treatment of borderline patients.

A clinical investigation of nightmares enhanced the psychotherapy of many hospitalized borderline patients. Early familial trauma, prominent in the latent content of the nightmares, predisposed these patients to adult dysfunction or to a maladaptive response to subsequent trauma. The hospital ward's emphasis on intergenerational family therapy and the well-integrated holding environment helped offset distress in patients resulting from the upsurgence of conflictual material latent in their nightmares, whether or not they were posttraumatic. The authors present illustrative cases.