A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis — John Shaqi
A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
The chief condition of these cases is conceivably that the existing
psychic situation is unknown to us or inaccessible to our inquiries. At
that time our interpretation has only the value of a conjecture to which
we ourselves do not wish to grant too much weight. Later, however,
something happens which shows us how justified was our interpretation
even at that time. I was once the guest of a young married couple and
heard the young wife laughingly tell of a recent experience, of how on
the day after her return from her honeymoon she had hunted up her
unmarried sister again in order to go shopping with her, as in former
times, while her husband went to his business. Suddenly she noticed a
gentleman on the other side of the street, and she nudged her sister,
saying, "Why look, there goes Mr. K." She had forgotten that this
gentleman was her husband of some weeks' standing. I shuddered at this
tale but did not dare to draw the inference. The little anecdote did not
occur to me again until a year later, after this marriage had come to a
most unhappy end.
A. Maeder tells of a lady who, the day before her wedding, forgot to try
on her wedding dress and to the despair of the dressmaker only
remembered it later in the evening. He adds in connection with this
forgetfulness the fact that she divorced her husband soon after. I know
a lady now divorced from her husband, who, in managing her fortune,
frequently signed documents with her maiden name, and this many years
before she really resumed it. I know of other women who lost their
wedding rings on their honeymoon and also know that the course of the
marriage gave a meaning to this accident. And now one more striking
example with a better termination. It is said that the marriage of a
famous German chemist did not take place because he forgot the hour of
the wedding, and instead of going to the church went to the laboratory.
He was wise enough to rest satisfied with this one attempt, and died
unmarried at a ripe old age.
Perhaps the idea has also come to you that in these cases mistakes have
taken the place of the _Omina_ or omens of the ancients. Some of the
_Omina_ really were nothing more than mistakes; for example, when a
person stumbled or fell down. Others, to be sure, bore the
characteristics of objective occurrences rather than that of subjective
acts. But you would not believe how difficult it sometimes is to decide
in a specific instance whether the act belongs to the one or the other
group. It so frequently knows how to masquerade as a passive experience.
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