Case Report: "Dream Insertion"
Individuals with schizophrenia appear to experience differences in dreaming compared to control populations—the small amounts of research that does exist demonstrates abnormalities such as simpler dreams that are more bizarre and with greater negative content than those of controls. Dream-related psychopathology remains insufficiently described however— particularly experiences in which patients believe their dreams are externally generated or controlled. Such phenomena extend classically described first rank symptoms—such as thought insertion and passivity phenomena—into the domain of sleep mentation. This case presents a patient who describes a delusional belief that an external agent can directly infiltrate his nocturnal state toinsert dreams themselves.