Dreams in child analysis : Winnicott's Piggle and dreams as symptoms in a Lacanian clinic

Abstract

Classically, psychoanalysis has never allowed much space for children's dreams to speak in the language of the unconscious. They have been treated as primitive residues incapable of analytical interpretation. Through an analysis of the role of dreams in the case of Gabrielle as presented by D.W. Winnicott, I aim to demonstrate that dreams, especially in the case of infants, could function symptomatically. Dreams could be symptomatic in two senses: first, as a cause for seeking analysis and second, and more importantly, because dreams could become the site of jouissance in the subject.