[Psychoanalytic interpretation of sleep-disturbances. Model of a structural-theoretical classification (author's...

In psychoanalytic literature anxiety, guilt-feelings and unconscious hostility are assumed to be the most common causes of spleeplessness. The author attempts to ascribe these emotions to conflicts between the instances of the psychoanalytic personality model as a structure-theoretical classification of sleep-disturbances. Three large groups emerge: Neurotic disturbances of sleep with internalized conflicts (these correspond essentially to what are generally understood to be neurotic sleep-disturbances), neurotic disturbances of sleep with externalized conflicts (these are more common in childhood) and non-neurotic sleep disturbances. Within these groups the relative parts of effectiveness of the instances of the psychoanalytic personality-model - ego, super-ego, id and reality - are discussed.