It came out in the course of the analysis that he had been from infancy
his father's constant companion, working for him till he was over forty
years of age. Although he had always been fond of women, he had never
thought of marrying until his father died. After reciting the usual
arguments of the average bachelor directed against matrimony, he confessed
that he had never had the courage to bring to his home any young woman he
liked and who might have become his wife. Fear of his father's sarcastic
remarks set to nought any plans he might have made for a home of his own.
After his father's death, he went half-heartedly into various business
ventures of which his father would have disapproved and he naturally lost
his investment. Every time he met with a reverse, he would be tortured by
remorse. "This is my father's money which I have been squandering." "My
father would be furious if he knew what I have done."
He would then dream that his father stalked past him, cold, indifferent,
stern, and he "knew" his father had "come back" to show him his
resentment.
The superficial symptoms of the patient's trouble were easily removed when
he acquired enough insight to realize that he had been imitating all of
his father's attitudes and repressing his own ego.
Physical exercise soon restored to his legs the steadiness which they had
lost while the patient, imitating his father's helplessness, would sit in
his father's chair day after day, never taking a walk. A more critical
attitude of mind toward the father whom he worshipped, removed gradually
the sense of worthlessness which had almost lead him to suicide.
Suicide to him was the road that led back to his father, upon whom he
wished to shift his responsibilities, and for whom he wished to work (as a
younger man), etc.
The case was much more complicated but the few details of it which I have
presented are sufficient to show the close connection which existed
between the patient's most frequent dream and his imaginary neurotic goal.
A homosexual patient always dreamt of her stepmother whom her father
married when she, the patient, was only twelve years of age. That marriage
was the culmination of a complicated family tragedy, double divorce,
unsavoury publicity, bitterness and hostility, puritanical gossip about
sex, passion, etc., which made on the child an indelible impression.
She felt obscurely then that relations between sexes were something
unutterably filthy and while she liked a few boys in her flapper days, she
could not master a feeling of disgust whenever their attitude reminded her
of the "nasty" things which had wrecked her family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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