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Studies of the behavioral responses of obese patients during weight reduction present conflicting observations. This is due, in part, to methodologic problems. A possible solution is offered by a multidisciplinary investigation of obese patients before, during, and after weight reduction. This report gives details of one aspect of such an approach; namely, a clinical evaluation of psychopathologic reactions and psychodynamic processes of obese patients during weight loss.Four obese patients were fed a 600-cal./day liquid formula over a period of 16-20 weeks. Each patient manifested nonspecific symptoms of semi-starvation in addition to specific psychopathologic reactions related to individual personality structure. In these patients, psychopathologic adaptations during weight reduction were related to diminished body size, interpersonal transactions in the hospital environment which articulated with earlier injurious experiences, and caloric deprivation.

This article describes several studies that examine the relationship between the manifest content of selected dreams reported by patients and their clinical progress during psychoanalytic and psychodynamically oriented treatment. There are a number of elements that dreaming and psychotherapy have in common: affect regulation; conflict resolution; problem-solving; self-awareness; mastery and adaptation. Four different studies examined the relationship between the manifest content of selected dreams and clinical progress during treatment. In each study, the ratings of manifest content and clinical progress by independent observers were rank-ordered and compared. In three of the four studies there was a significant correlation between the rankings of manifest content and the rankings of clinical progress. This finding suggests that the manifest content of dreams can be used as an independent variable to assess clinical progress during psychoanalytic and psychodynamically oriented treatment.