Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis : $b a course of twenty-eight lectures delivered at the University of ViennaFreud, Sigmund
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Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis : $b a course of twenty-eight lectures delivered at the University of Vienna
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
A second consideration, much more important and far-reaching but equally
overlooked by the laity, is the following. A wish-fulfilment must
certainly bring some pleasure; but we go on to ask: “To whom?” Of course
to the person who has the wish. But we know that the attitude of the
dreamer towards his wishes is a peculiar one: he rejects them, censors
them, in short, he will have none of them. Their fulfilment then can
afford him no pleasure, rather the opposite, and here experience shows
that this “opposite,” which has still to be explained, takes the form of
_anxiety_. The dreamer, where his wishes are concerned, is like two
separate people closely linked together by some important thing in
common. Instead of enlarging upon this I will remind you of a well-known
fairy-tale in which you will see these relationships repeated. A good
fairy promised a poor man and his wife to fulfil their first three
wishes. They were delighted and made up their minds to choose the wishes
carefully. But the woman was tempted by the smell of some sausages being
cooked in the next cottage and wished for two like them. Lo! and behold,
there they were—and the first wish was fulfilled. With that, the man
lost his temper and in his resentment wished that the sausages might
hang on the tip of his wife’s nose. This also came to pass, and the
sausages could not be removed from their position; so the second wish
was fulfilled, but it was the man’s wish and its fulfilment was most
unpleasant for the woman. You know the rest of the story: as they were
after all man and wife, the third wish had to be that the sausages
should come off the end of the woman’s nose. We might make use of this
fairy-tale many times over in other contexts, but here it need only
serve to illustrate the fact that it is possible for the fulfilment of
one person’s wish to be very disagreeable to someone else, unless the
two people are entirely at one.
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