Morphology and Other Parameters of Phantasy in the Schizophrenias: A Phenomenological and Statistical Approach to Dreams and Other Works of the Imagination As They Occur in the Natural History of Schizophrenic Illness

“. . . We are such stuff As dreams are made of and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”

—The Tempest

Introduction and Definitions  The originial observations from which this study was projected were made in the course of my clinical practice. It seemed to me that the form, structure, or morphology of phantasies in general, and of dreams in particular, corresponded with the extent, depth, and degree of latent and manifest mental illness in general, and the ongoing schizophrenic illness in particular. This relationship has already been noted in “Schizophrenic Art.”¹The schizophrenias are herein defined as illnesses with an etiology ranging from primarily heredoconstitutional-organic to primarily psychogenic. They have in common a progressive disarticulation between the person and his environment. Within the person there is progressive disarticulation between mental structures and functions, with an eventual disorganization of nearly all mental structures and functions. The rate