Masochistic Dreams: A Gender-Related Diathesis for Depression Revisited

Masochistic dreams, as defined by Beck (1967), are reportedly more prevalent among women and individuals with past or present depression. However, it is unclear whether these prevalence differences are a function of depressogenic personality traits or fluctuating mood symptoms. In the present study, 30 men and 30 women without histories of major depression slept two consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory and reported their dreams from each REM period on the second night. Dream content from this sample was compared to that of 60 depressed participants who were studied previously under the same protocol. Analyses did not support a heightened prevalence of masochistic dreams among women or depressed individuals. Interestingly, the masochistic dreams of the non-depressed sample were equally distributed across the night, whereas depressed individuals tend to report masochistic dreams closer to morning. This hypothesized pattern suggests that masochistic dreams may be pathognomic of depression in that their occurrence near the end of the night affects morning mood with negative dream residue.