Characteristics of patients accepted for both intensive psychotherapy and psychoanalysis were rated during their initial assessments. Twenty cases that terminated prematurely (most within the first month) were compared with twenty cases that continued in therapy. While neither specific diagnosis, type of insight therapy, nor gender of the patient or therapist was a reliable predictor of premature termination, it was found that psychodynamic and environmental assessment factors significantly differed between these two groups. In those patients who eventually dropped out, specific ego deficits, primarily introspection, frustration tolerance, impulse control, and motivation, were rated as significantly more impaired. The therapists' negative feelings toward their prospective patients and the patients' hostility toward past caretakers and present life circumstances were also associated with premature termination.

The dreams of anorexic patients' were recorded using a standardized sleep questionnaire concerning the perceptual qualities and affects remembered from their dreams. The anorexic subjects consistently had less frequent dream recall, fewer dreams in colour and fewer pleasurable themes than was noted in the normal controls. Anorexics frequently saw themselves in their dreams as having a distorted body (especially an enlarged belly), a younger appearance, and experienced food and hunger dysphoria. The evaluation of an anorexic patient's dreams and their subsequent changes in both sensations and the frequency of reported dreaming may have diagnostic and as well as prognostic importance for the therapeutic assessment of anorexia nervosa.

Erotic transferences occur on a spectrum reflecting the ease or difficulty of their management. They represent sexualized re-enactments of important childhood relationships. This phase in psychotherapy may be a transient developmental feature or in some instances, assume a formidable resistance to further insightful work. Two case illustrations are given to indicate the breadth of this spectrum. Reasons are discussed for such differences in erotic transferences and their resolutions.