Collected Papers on Analytical PsychologyJung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Science
Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Psychoanalysis
The wish-fulfilments of our patient go even further. Switzerland has
to furnish her with an income of 150,000 francs. The Director of the
Burghölzli owes her 80,000 francs damages for wrongful incarceration.
She is the proprietress of a distant island with silver mines, the
"mightiest silver island in the world." Therefore she is also the
greatest orator, possesses the most wonderful eloquence, for, as she
says, "Speech is _silver_, silence gold." To her all the beautiful
landed estates belong--all the rich quarters, towns and lands, she
is the proprietress of a world, even a "threefold proprietress of
the world." Whilst poor Hannele was only elevated to the side of the
Heavenly Bridegroom, our patient has the "Key of Heaven," she is not
only the honoured earthly queens Mary Stuart and Queen Louise of
Prussia, but she is also the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God as well
as the Godhead. Even in this earthly world where she was but a poor,
ill-regarded homely dressmaker she attained fulfilments of her human
wishes, for she had taken three husbands from the best families in
the town and her fourth was the Emperor Francis. From these marriages
there were two phantom children--a little boy and a little girl. Just
as she clothed, fed and feasted her parents, so she provided for the
future of her children. To her son she bequeathed the great bazaar of
Zürich, therefore her son is a "Zur," for the proprietor of a _Bazaar_
is a "Zur." The daughter resembles her mother; hence she becomes the
proprietress of the asylum and takes her mother's place so that the
mother is released from captivity. The daughter therefore receives the
title of "Agency of Socrates," for she replaces Socrates in captivity.
These instances by no means exhaust the delusional fancies of the
patient. But they will give you some idea, I hope, of the richness
of her inner life although she was apparently so dull and apathetic,
or, as was said _imbecile_, and sat for twenty years in her workroom,
where she mechanically repaired her linen, occasionally uttering a
complex of meaningless fragments which no one had hitherto been able to
understand. Her odd lack of words can now be seen in another light; they
are fragments of enigmatical inscriptions, of fairy-story phantasies,
which have escaped from the hard world to found a world of their own.
Here the tables are ever laden, and a thousand feasts are celebrated in
golden palaces. The patient can only spare a few mysterious symbols for
the gloomy dim shores of reality; they need not be understood, for our
understanding has not been necessary for her for this long time.
Nor is this patient at all unique. She is one of a type. Similar
phantasies are always found in patients of this kind, though not always
in such profusion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account