How then is the substitution of the delusion for the new idea supposed
to have occurred? I think thus: that the feeling of conviction which
clung to the idea was able to assert itself and persisted, while another
ideational content related to it by thought-connection acted as
substitute for the idea itself which was incapable of consciousness.
Thus the feeling of conviction was connected with a really strange
content, and this latter attained, as delusion, a recognition which did
not belong to it. Hanold transfers his conviction that Gradiva lives in
this house to other impressions which he receives in this house,
becomes, in a way, credulous about what the proprietor says, the
genuineness of the metal brooch, and the truth of the anecdote about the
lovers found in an embrace, but only by this route, that he connects
what he has heard in this house with Gradiva. The jealousy which has
been lying ready in him gets possession of this material, and even in
contradiction to his first dream there appears the delusion that Gradiva
was the girl who died in the arms of her lover, and that the brooch
which he bought belonged to her.
We notice that the conversation with Gradiva, and her gentle wooing
“through the flower,” have already evoked important changes in Hanold.
Traits of male desire, components of the libido are awakened in him,
which, to be sure, cannot yet dispense with the concealment through
conscious pretexts; but the problem of the corporeal nature of Gradiva,
which has pursued him this whole day, cannot disavow its derivation from
the erotic desire of the young man for possession of the woman, even if
it is dragged into the scientific world by conscious stress on Gradiva’s
peculiar hovering between life and death. Jealousy is an added mark of
Hanold’s awakening activity in love; he expresses this at the opening of
the conversation on the next day, and with the aid of a new pretext
achieves his object of touching the girl’s body, and of striking her, as
in times long past.
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