T H E COMMON

MIRROR DREAM, STANLEY J. COEN, h1.D.

DREAMER AND THE PAULA. BRADLOW.

h1.D.
DREAhl MIRROR

C URRENT i N T E w s - r 1r4 AIIKROK DREAMS appears to derive

from a more general interest in mirroring phenomena
during waking life in relation to recent psychoanalytic devel-
opments in narcissism, object relations, the concept of self, and
child development. We intend in this paper to present our
observations of patients who report, during analysis, a specific
type of mirror dream, which we have designated, because of
their frequency, the common mirror dream (CMD). A CMD is
defined as one in which the dreamer at some point looks into
a mirror and reports seeing himself, a part of himself, or a
distorted though recognizable version of himself. It is the most
common by far of a distinctly uncommon group, at least as
reported in analysis. Mirror dreams, i.e., dreams in which a
mirror is reported as an element in the dream, are quite rare.
We shall review the psychoanalytic literature on mirror dreams,
enumerate the multiple functions of the dream mirror as sug-
gested from our data on the CMD dreamer, and propose a
hypothesis concerning the genetic core of the CMD. We suggest

Faculty, Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and

Research.
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Annual Meeting of
the American Psychoanalytic Association, Atlanta, Georgia, hlay, 1978, and
to the Association for Psychoanalytic hledicine, New York, January, 1980.
Accepted for publication April 3, 1984.

797
798 S.J.COEN-P.A. hKADLOlt

that the essence of the ChID is a ~isual-exhibitionisticdyadic

mother-child relationship. It may represent the wish that the
analyst-mother counter a feared injunction against accurate
visual perception and evaluation so as to correct the distorted
perceptions of self and objects and provide visual affirmation
of the value and, perhaps, the integrity of the self-represen-
tation.
O u r interest in mirror dreams followed our observation
(Bradlow and Coen, 1975) that an unduly high frequency of
mirrors were reported in the dreams of a group of patients
with early parent loss. IVe had already noted a significant cor-
relation between the report of the analyst undisguised in the
initial dream in psychoanalysis and a history of early parent
loss. This led to an initial hypothesis: the clream mirror may at
times represent a continued visual search for the lost parent
and an attempt to deny object loss. Unable to validate this hy-
pothesis statistically, we then turned to an intensive study of
mirror dreams.
It has been assumed that any dream containing a mirror
is a mirror dream, possessed of a specific though not uniform
meaning. T h e varied functions, form, intactness, and diverse
roles played by the mirror in dream scenes has been generally
overlooked in previous papers. Such dreams may contain one
or more actions, scenes, and characters (not necessarily, though
most frequently, including the dreamer). \Ve are assuming, of
course, that the diverse manifest content of these mirror dreams
has psychic significance, requiring exploration by the usual psy-
choanalytic techniques.
T h e immediate task confronting us was some classification
of mirror dreams, even if preliminary and tentative. Conver-
sations with colleagues and perusal of the literature suggested
that analysts have unofficially defined a mirror dream as one
in which the dreamer at some point looks into a mirror and
reports seeing himself, a part of himself, or a distorted though
recognizable version of himself. As noted above, we call this
type of dream ChID; the remainder of mirror dreams can be
 T H E COhlhiON AIIRROR DREAM 799

defined as uncommon (UChlD). We chose, for the sake of clar-

ity, to exclude from the CMD category dreams in which any
dream character looks into a mirror and reports some obser-
vation, whether it be a person, action, place, etc., or nothing at
all (the vampire dream). For similar reasons, we excluded
dreams referring only to other reflecting surfaces, such as glass,
windows, or water.
Fifty-eight mirror dreams were collected from 26 persons.
Fourteen were in treatment by the authors. Twelve were found
in the charts of patients of candidate analysts at the Columbia
University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research;
detailed session-by-session notes and supervisory comments
were available in these cases. Despite the potential problems of
formulating reliable inferences from such chart material, we
sought in this way to ascertain the frequency of mirror dreams
and their most common functions and meanings in an enlarged
sample of analysands. Freud (1900, p. 275) noted, in the study
of typical dreams, It is but rarely that the material with which
the dreamer provides us in associations is sufficient to interpret
the dream. It is only by collecting a considerable number of
examples of such dreams that we can arrive at a better under-
standing of them. Our hypotheses derived from our own pri-
vate patient material; we then tested them against the data
obtained from clinic charts. Of the clinical examples to be pre-
sented here, two cases (hirs. A. and hlrs. B.) were in treatment
with one of us (S.J.C.); the other (hlr. C.) was a chart case.
T h e latter is included because of the patients proclivity for
mirror dreams; his material offers contrast to the other two
reported cases and most of our other data. This paper is limited
to our findings from the CMD group, representing 57 percent
(33/58)of the total. Seventeen of the 26 patients reported at
least one CMD.

Review of the literatiire

Mirror dreams have been studied and interpreted from widely
divergent points of view. Our overview, which has drawn on
800 S.J.COEN-P.A. BKADLOW

a large patient sample, is that previous authors have by and

large pointed to a single clinical issue as the main determinant
of mirror dreams. There have been three main perspectives
about mirror dreams. Ego-psychological aspects of the psy-
choanalytic process as reflected in the mirror dream are stressed
by Miller (1948) and Carlson (1977). Infantile (oedipal) sex-
uality and visual aspects of primal scene experiences and fan-
tasies are emphasized by Isay (1975), Myers (1973, 1976), and
Eisnitz (1961), and to a lesser extent by Miller (1948) and Fei-
gelson (1975). Narcissism is the perspective on mirror dreams
of Kaywin (1957), Eisnitz (1961), and Kohut (1971), although
they obviously differ substantially in their approach. Kaywin
and Eisnitz focus on defense against narcissistic injury, espe-
cially from superego criticism, within the conflict model of
structural theory. Kohut (partly supported by Feigelson) relates
the mirror dream to his own concept of narcissistic mirror trans-
ference, based on childhood deprivation and uncompleted de-
velopment, outside of a conflict model. We note, however, that
Kohut offers no clinical data to support his connection between
mirror dreams and mirror transference. Feigelson (1 975) alone
points to significant defensive regression in mirror dreams, a
belief for which he is criticized by Stewart (1975, unpublished)
and Myers (1976).
The Interpretation ofDreains (Freud, 1900) contains only two
dreams which in our opinion can be labeled mirror dreams.
Neither belongs to the category we define as the CMD. Both
are offered as illustrative of the dream work mechanism and
are not discussed in any other context. The first, taken by Freud
(pp.411-412) fromapaperbyTausk(1914)is: FrauD.dreamt
of seeing the eighty-year-old Vieiinese actor Blare1 lying on a sofa in
full amnor [in voller Riistuiig]. He began juiiiping over tables and
chairs, drew a dagger, looked at Iiimself in the looking glass and bran-
dished the dagger in the air as though he was fighting an imaginary
enemy. Freud linked the name Blase1 with the German word
for bladder (Blase) and suggested that by looking in the mirror
Frau D. reassured herself that she was hale and hearty despite
 THE COhlhiON hlIRROR DREAhl 80 1

her age and bladder illness. In the second dream (p. 400), the
dreamer (one of Freuds patients) is described as diving into
the dark waterjust where the pale moon was mirrored in it. This was
interpreted as a typical dream of birth; the imagery of mirroring
is not discussed further.
Miller (1948) wrote the first psychoanalytic paper devoted
in large measure to the mirror dream. We are critical that the
dream examples offered to validate his hypotheses include
CMDs, dreams of reference to a mirror, and even a dream
without a mirror but in which a dream character seems to be
arranged like a mirror image to the dreamer. Miller claims that
mirror dreams occur when the integrative function of the ego
is sufficient to deal with the anxiety attendant on the emergence
of hitherto repressed conflicts into consciousness. Mirror im-
ages in dreams represent characterizations of parts of the per-
sonality that are just emerging into consciousness. Carlson
( 1977) expands and modifies this, postulating that mirror
dreams appear at critical points in an analysis, characteristically
after a threatening interpretation. Intact dream mirrors with
clear images are reported following creative integration with
new insight of previously threatening material, while mirrors
that are shattered or multiplied, or without reflection are ac-
companied by evidence of terror and a lower level of psycho-
logical organization. These hypotheses, which we regard as
interesting but probably overly schematic, are not congruent
with our data.
Kaywin (1957) reports a CMD he believes demonstrates
how the idealized self-image was covering (repressing) a very
negative self-image (p. 300). Eisnitz (1961) remarks that it also
indicates an apparent failure of mastery of the superego. He
proposes that mirror dreams represent a defense against nar-
cissistic mortification from the superego, the analyst, or reality.
Defense against superego criticism is accomplished by splitting
off the threatening part of the superego and projecting it onto
the mirror. Omnipotent voyeurism then masters the projected
image following which it can be reintrojected safely as a pro-
802 S.J. COEN-PA. UKADLOIV

tector of narcissism. Although, for Eisnitz, this is the mirrors

typical role, in a footnote (p. 475) he speaks of two other mir-
rors: one representing the avenging superego and one allowing
for relatively undistorted self-observation.IVhile the last is plau-
sible, it is not congruent with our finding that mirror dreams
are rare. In contrast, Kohut (1971) remarks that mirror dreams
occurring during the analysis of narcissistic patients portray the
self as observer and the analyst, the observed, as reflector of
the grandiose self. In the analysis of a transference neurosis,
such dream pictures may simply symbolize the analytic process
of self-scrutiny. We agree with Stewart (1975, unpublished) that
this latter statement is true but incomplete. Kohut claims he has
never observed mirror dreams except when a major part of the
grandiose self is being mobilized in relation to the analyst. Stew-
art, in opposition to Feigelson (1975), does not believe there is
any relation between mirror dreams and Kohuts theory of the
mirror transference.
Isay (1975) reports mirror dreams which steninled from
wishes to be both observer and the observed participant in the
primal scene. hzlyers (1976) hypothesizes genetic linkages be-
tween the presence of imaginary companions or fantasy twins
and extensive mirror play in childhood and early adolescence,
and the appearance of mirror dreams and depersonalization
in later adolescence and adulthood. He emphasizes the relation
of these phenomena with a splitting of the self-representation
as defense against castration anxiety and object loss, especially
in relation to aggression. Feigelson (1 975) connects mirror
dreams to the later revelation of earlier mirror masturbation.
According to Feigelson the mirror dream represents a re-
gressive partial reunion with the protective mother to allay guilt
and reassure against object loss in response to aggression mo-
bilized by an object conflict. According to Stewart, Feigelson
does not prove his thesis convincingly. hlyers (1976) disagrees
that all mirror dreams involve a regression to a me-not-me stage
of ego development. Eisnitz (1961) notes that the dream mirror
could represent Lewins (1946, 1953) dream screen, indicating
 T H E COhIhION hiIRROR DKEAhI 803

a mirror-face-breast equation. Lewin (1953) had suggested that

glass and window representations in dreams may refer to a glass
dream screen. Eisnitz thinks the mirror image might also rep-
resent a transitional object.
We agree with Stewarts (1975, unpublished) broader view
that the dream mirror serves as a concrete way of expressing
a self-scrutiny involving incompatible, unintegrated and con-
flictual self-representations. Two other mirror contributions,
while concerned with topics beyond the province of this article,
are worth noting here. Elkisch (1 957) claims the psychotic pa-
tient by his mirror-gazing activity while awake usesthe mirror
in order to externalize, alias project, his impulses and conflicts
(which in reality he denies). [Such] patients try to retrieve, as
it were, in their mirrored images what they felt they had lost
or might lose; their ego, their self, their boundaries (p. 240).
Shengold (1974) strongly underscored the mirror as a meta-
phor for the mind, its structure and function; most conflicts,
he claimed, could be enacted in the mirror. M7ewholeheartedly
concur.
A comprehensive theory of mirror dreams would have to
focus on the functions of mirrors in dreams. To date, only
Carlson (1977) has attempted this approach. His conclusions,
while interesting, are not supported by our data. We wish to
keep in perspective why the dream requires a mirror, a dream
element which we have found to be quite rare. Issues of mir-
roring, narcissism, looking, etc., are common in analysis as well
as in dreams and do not require a mirror in a dream.

Clinical Exaq!des
ikfrs. A., an attractive married woman in her early thirties,
came for treatment in a moderately severe depression. She felt
unable to cope with her new position of research assistant. She
felt like an impostor, about to be unmasked. Her husband was
the br;illiant scholar. She could be his reflection, not a valuable,
unique person in her own right.
804 S.J.COEN-P.A. BKADLOIV

Mrs. A. had a nonidentical twin sister, and a brother. The

twins had been treated as a unit and dressed alike; differences
between them were minimized and denied by the mother. The
mother was depressed during Mrs. A.s childhood and probably
during the postpartum period. Father, an anxious, childlike
man, was out of the house long hours at his profession. In a
poignant screen memory, Mrs. A. described father during the
night holding a milk bottle in each outstretched arm to each
twin separately in her own crib. Mother was too tired or too
depressed to help.
Mrs. A.. tried hard to present a good face in order to
hide what she felt underneath, especially her hungry neediness,
anger, and depression. She acted as if she believed external
appearance indicated ones internal feelings: if your face looked
good, then your feelings were good. She often seemed inau-
thentic and incomplete as she attributed goodness to herself
and hunger and anger to others, especially her twin. Mrs. A.
had acquiesced with mothers pressure not to acknowledge
mothers depression and to assist her with this denial. We have
reconstructed that, for hlrs. A., feelings and perceptions were
acknowledged as valid only when she was neither angry nor
critical of mother or herself. Mothers attitude to A h . A.s com-
plaints would be, Its not important; its nothing.
One day Mrs. A. glanced furtively at some books on the
analysts shelf. When asked about it, she was embarrassed to
reveal how much she wanted to look at the analyst and his office
and how dangerous this seemed to her. She feared the analyst
would become angry at such intrusion and that she might dis-
cover something wrong with him that would ruin everything.
hlrs. A. feared looking accurately at her own feelings, herself,
and others, and she mistrusted her perceptions defensively. She
had developed the concept of looking as magically dangerous
and forbidden. Accurate looking would undo denial and split-
ting and, she feared, would somehow undo mothers precarious
integration.
She reported the following dream in her second year of
treatment:
 T H E COhlhlON hIIKKOK DKEAhI 805

Bob [husband] tried on a straw hat, wide-brimmed,

rounded, large. It didnt look good on him. There was a
mirror on the wall. I tried on the hat. On me, it didnt look
bad. The hat was too feminine for Bob yet somewhat mas-
culine for me. Gladys [twin sister] was wearing a hat-blue
with several veils-and Gladys looked pretty in it (thats
not how Gladys usually looks). Gladys looked at herself in
the mirror. Then I tried on the hat and I looked at myself
in the mirror. I looked beautiful in it. Gladys and I were
both unmarried, and it seemed a shame that with both of
us looking so good, we hadnt married.
Mrs. A.3 associations were to wanting to see herself as
beautiful in the mirror, which she could not perceive when she
felt irritable, annoyed, and sarcastic. Although she still tried to
attribute her intense neediness to others, such defense was now
less successful; she craved attention and admiration, and felt
envious and angry. T h e following night she dreamed of per-
forming onstage while being filmed for television. hlrs. A.
thought she was getting a good reception from the audience,
but a maternal figure criticized her. It turned out that only a
man had been filmed; hlrs. A. had been completely off camera.
Associations were to anger at her brother and analyst stealing
the show. Would she have been liked better as a boy, she won-
dered.
Six months later, she dreamed:
I have a meeting in Queens. Its night and I should
go to the Bronx. Im driving a car in Queens. Although
I know Queens, I dont know the Bronx. Oh damn it! Did
it have to be tonight that I have to go to the Bronx when
I have this meeting thats brought me to Queens! I dont
even know my way around the Bronx. I meet a girl who
works with me and who lives in the Bronx. Its in a res-
taurant and Bob and I are sitting at a table with some
young women. One woman has blond hair and stands in
front of Bob and sways back and forth in front of him. He
8OG S.J.COEN-P.A. URADLOIV

doesnt mind it, but rather enjoys it. I notice this girl is
rather attractive and she has very pretty breasts. Im very
angry and jealous of her. I say to myself Im really going
to kill him. I look at myself in the mirror and I see that
my nose is ugly. I see a very long nostril [sic]. I think Im
not pretty and 1 cant afford to show my anger and in tha;
way to be independent. So Im sad instead.
She felt angry that the analyst did not provide her with
more admiration and support. The woman in the dream had
her kind of breasts; her husband thought she had beautiful
breasts, but she had trouble connecting that idea with herself.
In the dream mirror she saw her mothers nose, not her own.
Mother and .thetwins haderhinoplasties. hlrs. A. commented,
It was almost as if Im my mother dreaming this dream. She
suggested the analyst tried to create the illusion of interest and
caring. It was hard for her to tell whether this might be real
and genuine. Her nostril in the dream was vaginalike; she had
never looked at her vagina.
In the following session, she described her vagina as a glob,
without definition or shape. Its formless with some protuber-
ances. Its just a soft fleshy mass, oozing like jello. A glob,
spreads all over and eats up everything in its path. Her left
nostril she associated with being the only left-handed one in the
family. When depressed, she thought she was only a reflection
of her husband or mother. With great difficulty, she revealed
a fantasy of herself as a photographer forcing a woman, who
was missing most of her teeth, to open her mouth while having
her picture taken. This other woman had kept her mouth shut
in a yearbook picture, hiding her missing teeth. Mrs. A. now
wanted to expose what was wrong with herself, including her
vagina and her angry hunger, what was wrong with her mother,
and force mother to see and admit this.

Mrs. B., an older woman, came for treatment because of inhib-

3 e d sexual responsiveness. She felt herself easily infringed
upon and protested that the treatment would interfere with her
 T H E COhlhlON hlIRROR DREAM 807

luxurious lifestyle. She had maintained an image of herself as

stupid, and presented qualities of pseudo-imbecility. Not only
was her intelligence intact, but she was a fanciful, imaginative,
and creative person. This was all hidden under a mask of
proper social behavior and dress, smiling and entertaining. hlrs.
B., like hlrs. A., needed to maintain a good face.
hlrs. B. was an only child. Her mother had been depressed,
alcoholic, and probably psychotic during some of hlrs. B.s
childhood. hirs. B. had not been consciously aware of this at
the start of treatment. The father had been very much idealized
to fill in for the mother and to obscure his deficiencies.
During her second year of treatment, when she related a
CMD, she became aware of her difficulty in maintaining a feel-
ing of vitality and aliveness. Indeed, the analysts use of these
words was very moving to her. She would repeat them to her-
self, as if taking in these very qualities from the analyst. She
had begun to acknowledge the extent of her mothers psycho-
pathology and her rage at mother. Especially galling was the
mothers regarding her as Gods child, as if she were indis-
tinguishable from all other children. Mother negated anger and
aggression and pretended to be all-loving and good. Even more
than Mrs. A.s mother, hfrs. B.s mother established the in-
junction that the patient neither acknowledge nor show mother
the latters pathology. Anger in the patients face seemed to be
like a mirror held up to the mother of the aggression in herself,
which she feared she could not contain.
Prolonged narcissistic reverie states during the sessions re-
produced mothers withdrawal and detachment, including ep-
isodes of alcoholic stupor, as well as her own defenses against
her feelings and fantasies in relation to these experiences. She
felt great horror, as this emerged, of being unable to differ-
entiate herself from mother. She dreamed:
Going down the stairs. There is a sign: Listen to the
Queen! I clink down the stairs. I have a crown (tiara).
Then I couldnt find my crown. I yell at Mother, blaming
her, saying, Typical, typical, typical! That it didnt matter
808 S.1. COEN-P.A. BRADLOIV

much to mother. I wanted to show Daddy my crown. I

find thecrown. Something about cold cream (when I awake
I think vanishing cream). I look in the'mirror and I see
that from the crown there is a gold veil and there's a pink
glow over my face. I look good.
Mrs. B. associated to wanting to be the Queen and give
orders, although she felt embarrassed and guilty about this. She
referred to painful feelings of helplessness with mother, her
inability to affect mother. She would like to display herself and
be admired, but was afraid of ridicule, of appearing like the
mother who pretended to be the Queen. For mother, this had
been empty pretense and everyone had known it. Wanting to
see herself as feminine and attractive, she feared confusion with
the sick mother. She sought a glow of health in the mirror
rather than the apathy and inertness of mother. Mrs. B. angrily
mocked the grandiose mother's pretense, the "mask" behind
which she hid. In her guilt at angrily exposing the sick, phony
mother, she feared the same would be done to her. She feared
that in the intensity of her rage at her mother, she might also
destroy parts of the good mother and of herself.
Visual enhancement of her excited feelings, especially dur-
ing masturbation fantasies, was an important mode for coun-
tering her depression and detached reverie states. While father
was visiting, Mrs. B. would masturbate in the shower, the door
unlocked, with the fantasy that he might open the door and see
her masturbating. She also fantasied that workmen on a higher
floor might be able to see her masturbating through the duct
system running through the bathroom. At her gym, she would
often masturbate in the whirlpool bath where she might be
seen. She would fantasy that a small object in the whirlpool bath
was a television camera by which her masturbation could be
observed. While watching her excitement, the other person
would also become excited; seeing their excitement in fantasy
enhanced her own feelings.

The case of Mr. C. highlights similarities to and differences

 T H E COhIhION hlIRROR DREAhI 809

from the two cases described above as well as our other clinical
material. He reported eleven CMDs, more than any other pa-
tient in our series. Mr. C., a married businessman in his late
thirties, sought analysis because of anxiety attacks, lack of con-
fidence, and inhibited assertiveness. The only child of Jewish
immigrants from eastern Europe, hlr. C. had been very much
overprotected by his domineering mother. Mother was espe-
cially critical of the patients expressions of anger, aggression,
and assertiveness. She would punish him for showing an angry
face, either because she felt insulted or because it provoked her
own hostile aggression. But unlike all but one other case, this
mother did not seem to experience the childs angry face as
revealing her own bad or sick self. Only one other patient was
not enjoined by a powerful internalized injunction not to see
the mothers rather prominent psychopathology. Here the pa-
tient was not to see and acknowledge the mothers anger and
his own anger, aggression, and masculinity. Mr. C. differed in
not having a pervasive identification with a pathological mother.
T o comply with mothers injunction, under pain of loss of
her love and castration, he simultaneously maintained two con-
tradictory masculine self-images: as castrated boy and adult
phallic man. Mr. C. presented negative superficial aspects of
himself to conceal the more positive aspects of himself as an
adult masculine man. Pretense and external appearance were
used for simultaneous affirmation and denial of his adult mas-
culine phallic self. He was how he looked, and this could be
changed by a gesture, an expression, by the length of his tie,
or the quality of his clothing. The magic of gestures and ap-
pearances served to undo aggression and transform his identity.
hlr. C.s initial dream in analysis was a CMD reported in
the sixth session, the second on the couch:
I was on a barber chair. I had gotten a haircut. Just
before I got off he showed me the back of my hair with
a mirror. Hair was on my neck. He said, This is the way
you wanted it! I thought it really isnt a haircut, but I
guess its all right.
8 10 S.J. COEN-P.A. URADLOIV

Associations to the dream included: The haircut was not

what he had ordered, but he felt satisfied. However, he had felt
dissatisfied and annoyed following the last session, because the
analyst was not doing more of the work of the treatment. He
resented feeling he had to do everything himself. He feared
becoming dependent on the analyst. Then, sadly, he talked
about no one ever sitting down to help him develop his talents.
A screen memory emerged of father taking him at age six,
against mothers protest, for a haircut; father would help him
get rid of his long hair and girlish appearance.
This ChID is somewhat unusual in our series in that another
dream character holds the mirror up to the dreamer. The im-
mediate issue in the analysis concerned the fear of exposure of
the extent of his feminine identification with mother and of
dependent submission to the analyst-mother. There was the
wish to expose that he had a penis while pretending he did not,
that he was not the active exhibitor, that he was passive and
penisless.
Toward the end of the first year of analysis, Mr. C. reported
the following mirror dream:
Walking down the street with a young woman. We
passed my mother and after we passed her, I kissed the
woman. After that 1 got an ecstatic thrill. I looked in a
mirror and my lips were red from her lipstick. I thought
of my mother and tried to wipe the lipstick off. Then I
decided I had gotten so much pleasure, I wanted more
and again this shock of pleasure. Then I didnt care if the
lipstick was on. I kissed her the third time and caressed
her breasts. Prior to passing my mother, I attempted to get
my hand in the front of her dress, and she offered no
resistance, but I kept looking around to see if anyone could
see us. As we passed my mother, I had my hand on her
shoulder. That was when 1 kissed her and decided it was
so pleasurable, I wanted another one and looked in the
mirror and saw the lipstick.
hlr. C. associated to the anxiety attack he had experienced 1
 THE COhIhlON hIIRROR DREAhI 81 1

the previous day. He had just moved into a newly purchased

house and felt pleased and anxious about having acted so self-
affirmatively. His mother was critical that he was moving away
from her, that they were not living together. He offered mother
money, then bought her a second-hand television set. He feared
he could not appease her. Mr. C. talked of being much more
aware now of his sexual feelings for women, including his
mother. He expressed this, however, with defensive nayved, as
if sexuality were all new to him.
Later mirror dreams involved phallic-exhibitionistic and
aggressive dangers with magical defense of adjusting his ap-
pearance in the mirror, for example, by regulating the length
of his tie, trimming his sideburns, or examining his clothes. He
pretended not to be aggressive or angry, and attempted to make
these feelings disappear by showing they were not visibIe on his
face. Vision had a magical power in that watching the appear-
ance of aggression in himself reassured him of his ability to
control his aggression. He kept an eye on himself! Castration
anxiety was defended against by visual introjection from the
dream mirror of the penis as symbolized by masculine clothing.
Mr. C. searched visually in some dream mirrors for the absent
father for assistance with further masculine development, and
protection from the critical mother.

Results
In contrast to Carlson (1977), we found that most analyzable
patients rarely report mirror dreams. This is true for our own
analytic practices and, furthermore, no mirror dreams of any
kind were found in almost every chart of control analysands at
the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Center.
Every ChlD patient in our study felt enjoined by the mother
(in most instances with the fathers collusion) not to see and
regard her clearly and not to be an accurately reflecting mirror
for her. Certain patients felt bound by the maternal injunction
not to reveal, especially to her, the phallic-aggressive and angry
812 S.1. COEN-P.A. BRADLOW

aspect of the self-representation and associated affects, and not

to acknowledge the mothers anger and aggression. Others felt
obligated not to recognize the mothers sense of herself as de-
fective, as well as her hostile aggression; they feared that show-
ing her their own anger and aggression would reveal similar
feelings in her and disturb her precarious equilibrium and in-
tegration. The intensity with which the maternal injunction
against accurate visual perception and evaluation was feared
was an important, uniquely distinctive feature in our patients
with common mirror dreams. The defect to be hidden in the
sicker mothers of our patients was most often depression, but
included also infantile qualities, bizarre traits, and gross physical
abnormalities, such as acromegaly and deaf-mutism.
A marked overvaluation of the importance of appearance,
facade, and external surface of the body was characteristic of
the entire patient group. There was abundant evidence that
their families, especially the mother, functioned in this mode
and encouraged these values in the patients. Ones external
appearance, especially of the face, was used by mother and
child to defend against negative affects and negative percep-
tions of the self.
Our material did not confirm a significant connection of
primal-scene exposure or primal-scene fantasies with mirror
dream phenomena (Eisnitz, 1961; Isay, 1975; Myers, 1973,
1976). In our patients, CMDs did not lead to the revelation of
childhood experiences of visual overstimulation. The report of
a common mirror dream was rarely related to the disclosure
of awake mirror activity, either currently or in childhood. This
would appear to differ from Myerss (1976) suggestion of a
genetic linkage between mirror play in childhood and later
mirror dreams. We could not substantiate Feigelsons (1975)
observation that mirror dreams lead to revelation of earlier
mirror masturbation. Mirror masturbation was mentioned only
by one patient, one who reported five UCMDs. Mirror use
during sexual intercourse was revealed only by one patient after
a CMD. Only one patient who reported a CMD described ex-
tensive mirror play in childhood.
 T H E COhlhION hIlKKOK DKEAhl 813

We ivere unable to confirm the hypotheses of Miller (1948)

and Carlson (1977) that common mirror dreams appeared at
critical points in treatment or that they followed especially
painful interpretations. That something new was emerging
at the time of a CMD is both so vague as not to be helpful and
often untrue in that the themes were not suddenly and newly
emerging. It is our impression, however, that at the time of
reporting a CMD, the patient often was experiencing a greater
intensity of affects, and that certain patients were making fur-
ther attempts to separate from a pathological maternal introject.
These phenomena certainly can proceed, however, without re-
port of a mirror dream.
Although Feigelson ( 1975) did not adequately demonstrate
that his own patients experienced depersonalization in relation
to their mirror dreams, several patients in our series experi-
enced altered states of consciousness in the session in which the
CMD was reported. Several Ch.IDs involved altered states of
consciousness within the dream itself. Patients most commonly
reported feeling sleepy, hazy, groggy, dizzy, and unable to con-
centrate clearly. Disgust and revulsion were the most common
affects defended against by the altered state of consciousness.
Cannibalistic, oral-sadistic, visually destructive wishes, and
guilty sexual longings, especially wishes to be raped, were in-
volved. Alteration of consciousness within a CMD seemed to
occur by use of the. mirror as a glass dream screen and as a
vehicle for autohypnosis.
Shengolds (1974) idea that an alteration of consciousness
occurred at the activation of an unassimilated introject applied
to several of the CMD patients. During the dream and/or the
session in which some CMDs were reported, alteration of con-
sciousness occurred at times in relation to attempts to differ-
entiate the self from the sick, defective mother, with the
associated rage. This alteration of consciousness involved both
confused self- and object images and defense against the intense
anger that threated to destroy the part of the self attached to
the bad object representation.
8 14 S.1. COEN-P.A. BKADLOIV

Distortion of reality within a CMD was common; we could

not agree, therefore, with Carlson (1977) that this necessarily
represented failure of integration. T o the contrary, in some
cases this related to the patients initial attempts to confront an
image of a parent as defective, which had been hidden by the
parents distortion of reality. In all of these patients, the self
was experienced as defective and distorted, at least by identi-
fication with the parent. The image of distorted reality in the
mirror dream occasionally derived from wishes to be able to
change reality. Deformity of an object in the manifest dream
content of the ChlD correlated highly with some impairment
of reality sense under stress. Distortion in the ChlD also related
to intense guilt concerning the negative self-images and affects.
Our data indicated that ChlDs did not appear in relation
to significant countertransference problems in the analyst, in-
terference in the analysts empathic responsiveness, or inter-
ruptions during treatment.

Discztssion
Our findings lead us to caution against attributing a definitive
set of meanings and functions to the manifest dream element
of the mirror in the CMD. You will recall Shengolds (1974)
emphasis on the multiple functions of mirrors, which was re-
iterated about mirror dreams by Stewart (1975, unpublished).
We do not regard the mirror as a universal dream symbol, with
similar symbolic significance for everyone. In that sense, the
dreams we investigated are not typicaldreams. We emphasize
instead similarities in the (common mirror) dreamers genetic
history, defensive style, and prototypical danger situations, es-
pecially involving visual perception and evaluation.
We hypothesize, insofar as a ChlD has general symbolic
significance, that it involves a visual-exhibitionistic dyadic
mother-child relationship. It is as if, I need to look in your
eyes and see that you admire me, that neither one of us is angry
with the other. This is in contrast to the wish simply to know
 THE COhlhlON hlIRROR DREAM 815

or remember that one is admired. The dream mirror repre-

sents, for certain patients, the wish that the analyst counter a
feared parental injunction against accurate visual perception
and evaluation so as to correct the distorted perceptions of self
and objects and provide visual affirmation of the value and, at
times, the integrity of the self-representation. The dream mir-
ror allows for simultaneous repudiation as well as acknowledg-
ment of highly conflicted parental identifications.
We speculate that a more extensive version of this visual-
exhibitionistic dyadic relationship involves a reverberating, re-
ciprocal mother-child, observer-observed interaction in which
both participants play active and passive roles. I as subject
enjoy and need to be the object of your wishes (eyes) while
gratifying my wish and need to look and admire you (as object)
while you are doing the same with me. Each partner is at once
subject and object, observer and observed, exciter and excited.
The subject is in front of and confronts the dream mirror andlor
mirror contents as object. The self is both subject and object,
the object both the other and ones self. The excited affect
visually perceived in self and object may be needed to further
enhance as well as to validate the integrity of the self-represen-
tation. Such patients also affirm preservation of the idealized
good object by the visual, affective recognition of the ability to
induce excitement in the other. This mirror dream mechanism
is similar to certain dynamic elements in voyeuristic perversion.
(Two patients with ChiDs and one with UCMDs had some lim-
ited perverse voyeuristic behavior.)
Through the analyst-mothers eyes and words, feelings are
seen and known. In the ChlD several patients looked at their
own face in the mirror to validate their feelings. In order to
tolerate intense negative feelings in the dream mirror, these
patients evoked the reassuring presence of the analyst-mother
in the mirror, the analyst asthe mirror-mother or as the owner
of the mirror. Kohut (1979) described a number of patients
who feared examining their images and feelings about patho-
logical and deficient qualities in the parents. He noted that
816 S.J.COEN-P.A. BRADLOIV

some of them had little difficulty with correcting transference

distortions. Although Kohut did not regard this as defensive,
some such patients have an imperative need to differentiate
clearly the analyst as protector of reality from their transference
longings. The latter derive from the relationship with a parent
regarded as unable to satisfactorily accept himself as the object
of such longings. The dream mirror serves this task by filtering
certain dangerous transference wishes through the patients
knowledge of the reality of the analytic situation and the reality
of the actual person of the analyst as the owner of the mirror
or as present within the mirror. The mirror in the dream is
needed to differentiate transference from reality, parent from
analyst. Ordinarily, patients are able to dream transference con-
flicts without the concomitant reassuring presence of the analyst
as guardian of reality (the analyst as the dream mirror). This
is one possible explanation for the rarity of mirror dreams.
The mirror, with its surface within which content is re-
vealed in the mirror depths, is an excellent medium for r e p
resenting and examining the surface and depth of self and
other. Patient and mother presented a mask or facade to the
world in an attempt to hide unacceptable feelings and negative
self-images. Many of these patients had struggled with the di-
lemma of simultaneously viewing a parent as grand and defec-
tive. The dream mirrors ability to represent multiple conflicted
images was important in the attempt at successful image inte-
gration.
For some of these patients, I (you) am (are) the way I
(you) look and I (you) look the way I (you) am (are). The
mirror allows one almost magically to transform images of one-
self and another; the self can be transformed into the object.
This latter process strengthens identification with the object as
defense against separation or destruction; self as object can be
seen in the mirror. On the other hand, visual overinvestment
of the self-representation in the dream mirror enhances its
value and integrity. The dream mirror helps define boundaries
of self and object by its frame or form, creating the illusion of
 THE COhlhlON hlIRROR DREAhl 817

containment, and by the contrast between mirror surface and

depth. The dreamers ability for magical manipulation- before
the mirror, of moving the mirror image at will, emphasizes the
very form and boundaries of the image and enhances an om-
nipotent illusion of control and capacity for magical transfor-
mation. T h e mirror as a finite circumscribed area symbolized
in dreams the effort to control, contain, and deny the intensity
of strong affects and drives. In this sense, the phenome.non of
the dream mirror is similar to a dream within a dream, a play
within a play, the addition of a play within a dream, or the
phenomenon of creating a dramatic scene. That is, it gives the
patient an added sense of control and safety in viewing certain
dangerous images within the frame and confines of the mirror.
T h e dream mirror itself, as noted, is regarded as owned by or
under the protective influence of the analyst-mother.
For certain patients, defense against the dangers of castra-
tion and loss of maternal love was accomplished by the mirror
mechanisms of magically transforming images before the mir-
ror, the ease of creating illusion before the mirror, and a fet-
ishistic mechanism of visually reintrojecting a phallic symbol
from the mirror. This is similar to Eisnitz (1961) ideas about
mirror dreams, particularly his reference to omnipotent voy-
eurism.
As Stewart suggested, the dream mirror was used by our
patients for representation of and the attempt at integration of
contradictory, conflicted self-images: masculine versus femi-
nine or castrated, aggressive versus passive, good versus bad,
exhibitionistic versus voyeuristic, and for some, separate and
whole versus incompletely differentiated. Fantasies of destruc-
tion by looking were common in these patients with highly
developed visual-aggressive fantasies. Looking per se had ac-
quired magical destructive potential. - T h e presence of intact
images in the dream mirror reassures that no one has been
destroyed.
We still conjecture there may be some merit in our original
hypothesis that the dream mirror may function in thecontinued
818 S.1. COEN-P.A. BRADLOW

visual search for a lost parent and the attempt to deny object
loss. Our data showed some correlation, not however statistically
significant, between CMDs and the attempt to regain a lost
parent. It would have been perhaps more accurate to have
formulated this as the continued visual hunger for needed sup-
plies from an insufficiently responsive or available parent. An
unexpected example supporting the original hypothesis comes
from Kardiners (1977) description of his analysis with Freud.
Kardiner (p. 61) wrote, I myself had several dreams in which
I could see myself in the mirror and the face would not reflect
my emotional expression, i.e., I would smile or 1 would frown,
but the expression in the mirror did not change. He presented
this during his analysis as an association to a frightening dream
of a mask. He was reminded of his childhood phobia of masks
and clothed wax figures. Kardiner emphasized the facial im-
mobility and lack of expression. Freud linked the mask to seeing
the dead mothers face. Later Kardiner learned from his sister
that he had discovered his dead mother at home when he was
three.

su 112?11n ly
From the widely diverse category of so-called mirror dreams,
we have differentiated the most frequent, which we have des-
ignated the common mirror dream (Ch4D). It is one in which
the dreamer at some point looks into a mirror and reports
seeing himself, a part of himself or a distorted though recog-
nizable version of himself. Mirror dreams, including CMDs, are
distinctly uncommon. Every dreamer of ChZDs in our series
had felt enjoined by the mother (in most cases with the fathers
collusion) not to see and regard her clearly and not to be an
accurately reflecting mirror for her. The intensity with which
the maternal injunction against accurate visual perception and
evaluation was feared was an important distinguishing feature
in our patients with CkIDs.
The essence of the ChID has been hypothesized to be a
 T H E COhlhlON hllKROK DKEAhI 819

reciprocal, reverberating, visual-exhibitionistic dyad represen-

tative of the mother-child relationship. The dream mirror may
represent the wish that the analyst-mother counter a feared
parental injunction against accurate visual perception and eval-
uation so as to correct the distoGed perceptions of self and
objects and provide visual affirmation of the value and integrity
of the self-representation. For some patients, defense against
the dangers of castration and loss of maternal love was accom-
plished by the mirror mechanisms of magically transforming
images in the mirror, the ease of creating illusion in the mirror,
and a fetishistic mechanism of visually reintrojecting a phallic
symbol from the mirror.
Our data failed to confirm many of the hypotheses of pre-
vious contributors as to specific symbolic meanings of the dream
mirror. More relevant than the symbolism of the dream mirror
are the many functions of the dream mirror or the dreamer.
These are analyzed and discussed.

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