DREAMS: NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
Humans seem to have a virtual monopoly on orgasm during sleep: the
phenomenon has almost never been noted in other animals. Although such
orgasms are a common but quantitatively unimportant occurrence among males
in the United States, they have received virtually no clinical attention
aside from a study of the content of accompanying dreams. The presence,
absence, and frequency of nocturnal emissions have been regarded (or perhaps
disregarded) with neutrality rather than utilized as a criterion for
evaluating sexual adjustment and emotional status. However, there has been
much attention paid, particularly by psychoanalysts, to the content of
dreams, and dream analysis has become an almost standard method for
exploring the personality of the individual. In such analyses many dreams
which appear to be asexual are considered sexual because of their symbolic
content: thus dreams of flying, of water, of wells or tunnels, etc., are
construed as sexual dreams. In the present study no dream was considered as
sexual solely on the basis of symbolism. To be termed sexual in our sense of
the word a dream had to incorporate some overt sexual element recognized as
such by the person reporting it.
*286\161\2*
Men’s Health Erective Dysfunction