COLOR IN DREAMS’

LOUIS LINN, hI.D.2

I. INTRODUCTION
Considering the frequency with which color appears in dreams,
the number of direct references in the literature to this phenom-
enon are remarkably few. T h e significance of words or speeches in
dreams has not suffered from this neglect; yet the incidence of the
latter, at least in my experience, is not greater than the incidence
of color details. This omission is further underscored by the fact
that their significance, as far as I have been able to ascertain, is the
same. Of speeches Freud (2, p. 389) says: “The dreamwork cannot
compose a new speech. No matter how many speeches and answers,
which in themselves may be sensible or absurd, may occur in
dreams, analysis always shows us that the dream has merely taken
from the dream thoughts fra-gnents of speeches which have really
been delivered or heard.”
I n a particularly colorful dream reported by Freud (2, p. 504),
he was-able to trace all of the individual colors which appeared in
the dream to a series of experiences in which each specific color
appeared. H e concludes, “The beautiful colors seen in the dream
were but a repetition of those seen in memory.” Ella Freeman
Sharpe (6) echoes this comment with a conclusion of her own,
“The clue to the significance of conversation, numbers and colors
in dreams can often be reached through the patient’s associations
to some specific person or object.”
1 Read belore the American Psychoanalytic Association, N n v York, December,
1958.
2 From the Psychiatry Service of the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City,

462

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 COLOR IN DREAMS 463
It is the fact that the colors seen in dreams are so frequently
repetitions of colors seen in memory that furnishes a most im-
portant clue in the analysis of color in dreams. When the patient
who reports color in a dream is asked, “Do you recall the precise
shade of that color?” he will usually answer in the affirmative. If
he is then asked, “Do you recall where you encountered that
specific color?” the question will usually result in a flood of sig-
nificant associations. This can be verified readily in one’s daily
practice.

11. SUPEREGO IN COLOR

REPRESENTATIONS

It has been contended that speech in dreams is primarily an

expression of superego function. It has been further contended
that the superego expresses itself almost exclusively via verbal
mechanisms. Isakower (4,p. 345) promulgated this thesis as fol-
lows: “Can one imagine that purely optical sense-impressions, for
example, by themselves and without showing any linguistically
ordered structure, could possibly lead to the building u p of a
function of logical or ethical jud,ment? TVithout further discus-
sion this question can certainly be answered in the negative. But
the claim of the auditory sphere to the primary place in the build-
ing up of the superego would be thereby established.” There is, it
seems, a fallacy i n this syllogism. One cannot argue away the power
of a parent’s angry glance to arouse anxiety or a depressive facies
to arouse feelings of guilt throughout the period of superego
formation and throughout life, for that matter. Visual experiences
contribute s o manifestly to superego formation that one must
question the claim of the auditory sphere to the primary place i n
the building up of the superego. I n any event, color in dreams
provides ready evidence of superego function in the nonauditory
sphere. Freud’s “non-vixit” dream provides such an instance. T h e
following is Freud‘s discussion of part of this dream (1, p. 392).

T h e scene in which I annihilate P. with a glance forms the

center of the dream. His eyes become strange and weirdly
blue [my emphasis], and then he dissolves. This scene is an
unmistakable imitation of a scene that was actually expe-

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464 LOUIS LINN

rienced. I was a. demonstrator at the Physiological Institute; I

was on duty in the morning, and Briicke learned that on sev-
eral occasions I had been unpunctual in my attendance at the
students’ laboratory. One morning, therefore, he arrived at
the hour of opening and waited for me. TVhat he said to me
was brief and to the point; but it was not what he said that
mattered [my empliasis]. TVhat ovenvhelmed me was the ter-
rible gaze of his blue eyes, before which I melted away-as P.
does in the dream, for P. has exchanged roles with me much
to my relief. Anyone who remembers the eyes of the great
master which were wonderfully beautiful even in his old age,
and has ever seen him angered, will readily imagine the emo-
tions of the young transgressor on that occasion.

A male patient dreamed of the holy grail as a youngster of ten.

I n this dream a crimson light streamed from the holy p a i l and
“seared” the eyes of the young beholder. T h e holy grail, as a
receptacle from which one drinks, was equated with the paternal
phallus. T h e searing of the eyes was a castrating punishment for
viewing the primal scene as well as a passive masochistic surrender
to the all-powerful father. T h e searing crimson light thus con-
tained not only superego elements but id elements as well.
This dream involving a bright light of overwhelming intensity
is reminiscent of material reported by Greenacre (3) in which the
source of color and light seen by the patients in their dreams is
also traced analytically to voyeuristic experiences relating to the
paternal phallus, and in which factors leading to superego forma-
tion could be found.
.? 111. OTHER FUNCTIONS
OF COLOR IN DREAhfS

I n a recent article Fliess (1) indicates that the notion of spoken

words in dreams invariably representing superego manifestations
is too narrow, that as a matter of fact spoken words can play a
much broader role in the psychic economy of the dream process.
T h e same is true with respect to color. TVhereas color in dreams is
often associated with superego functions, this is by no means in-
variably so. A variety of id strivings can find expression in the
dream via color. One example is to be found in the previously

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 COLOR IN DREAMS 465

mentioned dream of the holy grail. I n a patient described by Ella

Sharpe (6) color in dreams was invariably associated with oral
cravings; they were always described in terms of cream, butter,
lemon, etc.
A young woman dreamed she was wearing an orange dress.
TVhen asked to identify the specific shade of orange, she recalled
at once an orange crepe paper dress which she wore to a costume
ball as a youngster. This plunged her at once into associations
identifying her with her mother, and leading to the heart of her
oedipal problem.
Another young woman dreamed she was wearing a green scarf.
Asked to identify the color green more specifically, she said at
once, “Philodendronl” This in turn led to associations identifying
herself with her mother and her own oedipal longings.
Colorful hallucinatory phenomena are readily elicited with a
variety of drugs (Schilder, 5). T h e mechanism whereby these drugs
accomplish this-whether by sensitizing optic nerve endings to
color elements in the retina or as a central phenomenon-is not
yet known. It is my impression that the range of colors experienced
in response to drugs is much more limited and stereotyped than
the almost limitless variety reported by patients in dreams. In any
case, the main point of this communication is that the colors which
appear in dreams are, by and large, to be traced to specific expe-
riences in the outer world rather than to pre-existing color ele-
ments present constitutionally within the physiological apparatus
of vision.
.. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Fliess, R. T h e Rerrival of Interest in the Dream. New York: International Uni-

versities Press, 1953, pp. 128-155.
2. Freud, S. T h e Interpretation of Dreams. London: George Allen k Unwin, 1937.
3. Greenacre, P. Vision, headache and the halo. PsychoaraaI. Quart., 16: 177.194,
19i7.
4. Isakorrer. 0.On the exceptional position of the auditive sphere. Znternat. J .
Psychoanal., 20:340-348, 1939.
5. Schilder, P. Mind: Perception and Thought i n Their Constructive Aspects.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1942, p. 37.
6. Sharpe, E. F, Dream 4naIysis. Lotidon: Hogarth Press, 1949, pp, 92-96.

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