Narcolepsy -- cataplexy and psychoanalytic theory of sleep and dreams

Narcolepsy had been documented some twenty years before the psychoanalytic movement, emphasizing the central role of sleep and dreams in the understanding of mental health, offered an entirely novel theory of its aetiology. And when the full range of the behavioral aspects of the condition were documented, it was obvious that intense psychoanalytic interest in it was inevitable. Unfortunately, even mainstream neurology, lacking any rival physiological explanation, for a time tended to entertain a definite role for such beliefs, at least in some cases. However, such a theory involving outre concepts of repressed, guilt-ridden sexual drives as an explanation of the behavioral aspects of narcolepsy-cataplexy, of necessity simply added to the burdens of the sufferer. For it became clear that the condition by itself produced enough psycho-social problems without further adding to them. This historical note details the persistence of this misconceived theory up to the later decades of this century, and the burden that it placed upon those who suffered from this condition.