Dreaming in Addiction: A Study on the Motivational Bases of Dreaming Processes

Abstract

The study of dreams in drug-addicted subjects who typically show an abnormal desire to use drugs (i.e., drug craving) represents a new clinical contribution to the investigation of the role of motivations in dreaming processes. This paper reports two studies on the dreaming of heroin-addicted patients. These studies show that: (a) patients frequently dream about heroin (“using heroin” or “seeking and attempting to use heroin”) during abstinence (i.e., drug-craving frustration); and (b) dreams about heroin occur only in abstinent subjects and not in those who regularly use heroin. These results are largely compatible with the previous literature on dreaming in other forms of addiction. Drug dreams undoubtedly show that a clear specific motivational state (drug craving) is strongly involved in the occurrence of dreams clearly related to it. The implications of these data for dream research and theory are discussed.