Patterns of hostility revealed in the fantasies and dreams of women with rheumatoid arthritis.
Data relevant to the feelings of hostility harbored by 25 women with rheumatoid arthritis is reported. Noteworthy points include: (1) a high incidence of early loss by death, often by suicide, of one of the parents; (2) a high incidence of involvement in incestuous relationships; (3) the occurrence in the period of onset of illness of severe provocation by an ambivalently loved person whom the patient cannot relinquish; (4) the presence of conscious fantasies of revenge toward this person which tend not to be carried over into action; (5) the presence of vicious dreams, often containing frankly oral-sadistic motifs in many of which the patient herself is portrayed in the role of victim.
D000328:Adult; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000523:psychology*; D004325:Dreams; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged