A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
He himself is the traveler, I the customs official. Though otherwise
very frank in his confessions, he has on this occasion tried to conceal
from me a new relationship which he had struck up with a lady whom he
was justified in believing that I knew. The painful situation of being
convicted of this is transposed into a strange person so that he himself
apparently is not present in the dream.
9. The following is an example of a symbol which I have not yet
mentioned:
"_He meets his sister in company with two friends who are themselves
sisters. He extends his hand to both of them but not to his sister._"
This is no allusion to a real occurrence. His thoughts instead lead him
back to a time when his observations made him wonder why a girl's
breasts develop so late. The two sisters, therefore, are the breasts. He
would have liked to touch them if only it had not been his sister.
10. Let me add an example of a symbol of death in a dream:
"_He is walking with two persons whose name he knows but has forgotten.
By the time he is awake, over a very high, steep iron bridge. Suddenly
the two people are gone and he sees a ghostly man with a cap, and clad
in white. He asks this man whether he is the telegraph messenger.... No.
Or is he a coachman? No. Then he goes on,_" and even in the dream he is
in great fear. After waking he continues the dream by a phantasy in
which the iron bridge suddenly breaks, and he plunges into the abyss.
When the dreamer emphasizes the fact that certain individuals in a dream
are unknown, that he has forgotten their names, they are generally
persons standing in very close relationship to the dreamer. This dreamer
has two sisters; if it be true, as his dream indicates, that he wished
these two dead, then it would only be justice if the fear of death fell
upon him for so doing. In connection with the telegraph messenger he
remarks that such people always bring bad news. Judged by his uniform he
might also have been the lamp-lighter, who, however, also extinguishes
the lamps--in other words, as the spirit of death extinguishes the flame
of life. The coachman reminds him of Uhland's poem of King Karl's ocean
voyage and also of a dangerous lake trip with two companions in which he
played the role of the king in the poem. In connection with the iron
bridge he remembers a recent accident and the stupid saying "Life is a
suspension bridge."
11. The following may serve as another example of the representation of
death in a dream: "_An unknown man leaves a black bordered visiting card
for him._"
12. The following dream will interest you for several reasons, though it
is one arising from a neurotic condition among other things:
"_He is traveling in a train. The train stops in an open field. He
thinks it means that there is going to be an accident, that he must save
himself, and he goes through all the compartments of the train and
strikes dead everyone whom he meets, conductors, engine drivers, etc._"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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