Shall we risk an attempt to interpret this dream also, that is, to
substitute for it the latent thoughts from whose disfigurement it must
have proceeded? It is as nonsensical as one could expect a dream to be
and this absurdity of dreams is the mainstay of the view which denies to
the dream the character of a valid psychic act, and has it proceed from
a desultory stimulus of the psychic elements.
We can apply to this dream the technique which can be designated as the
regular procedure of dream-interpretation. It consists in disregarding
the apparent sequence in the manifest dream but in examining separately
every part of the content, and in seeking its derivation in the
impressions, memories and free ideas of the dreamer. As we cannot
examine Hanold, however, we must be satisfied with reference to his
impressions, and may with due caution substitute our own ideas for his.
“Somewhere in the sun Gradiva sat catching lizards, and said ...” What
impression of the day is this part of the dream reminiscent of?
Unquestionably of the meeting with the older man, the lizard-catcher,
for whom Gradiva is substituted in the dream. He was sitting or lying on
a “hot, sunny” slope and spoke to Hanold, too. Even the utterances of
Gradiva in the dream are copied from those of the man. Let us compare:
“‘The method suggested by my colleague, Eimer, is really good; I have
already used it often with the best of success. Please remain quite
still.’”—Quite similarly Gradiva speaks in the dream, only that for the
_colleague, Eimer_, is substituted an unnamed woman-colleague; the
_often_ from the zoologist’s speech is missing in the dream, and the
connection between the statements has been somewhat changed. It seems,
therefore, that this experience of the day has been transformed into a
dream by some changes and disfigurements. Why thus, and what is the
meaning of the disfigurements, the substitution of Gradiva for the old
gentleman, and the introduction of the puzzling “woman-colleague”?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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