Sleep Walking and Moon Walking: A Medico-Literary StudySadger, J.
Science
Sleep Walking and Moon Walking: A Medico-Literary Study
Sadger, J.
Psychoanalysis; Sleepwalking
"I thought however that they did not understand; the children were quite
differently formed, just as were all the people in the moon, so that
their feelings were altogether different and they led a sexual life of a
quite different kind. I thought they were kind to both sexes, because
Mother always said, 'You must not be alone with boys!' and that in the
moon this was permitted, for there no distinction was made between the
sexes in play."
I asked her more particularly in conclusion whether her explanation for
staring at the moon, that she identified moon and lamplight, was all
there was of it. She answered immediately that another explanation had
pressed itself upon her earlier, which she had rejected as "too
foolish." "The moon's shining disk reminded me in fact of a woman's
smooth body, the abdomen and most of all the buttocks. It excited me
very greatly if I saw a woman from behind. Whenever I am fondling any
one erotically and have my hand on the buttocks--I always think then of
a woman--the moon always occurs to me but in the thought of a woman's
body."
According to this explanation the sleep walker would have also stared at
the planet, because the round sphere awoke sexual childhood memories of
the woman's body, or, as I learned from another source, of the woman's
breast, most frequently however of her buttocks. It is moreover
noteworthy that it was always only the full moon that worked thus
attractively, not by chance the half moon or the sickle. An everyday
experience agrees very well with this. Children, when they see the full
moon or their attention is called to it, begin to snigger. Every one
familiar with the child psyche knows that such giggling is based on
sexual meaning, because the little ones usually think of the nates. Not
infrequently will children, when they are placed on the chamber, pull
away their nightclothes with the words, "Now the full moon is up,"
likewise when a child accidentally or intentionally bares himself at
that spot.
We have now the explanation, if we put together that which has just been
told us, why our sleep walker wakes up on the spot and comes to herself
as soon as she is called by name. This corresponds to her starting awake
when in school she was recalled from her sexual daydreams and the
earlier being startled when the mother called her out of similar sexual
phantasies to go to sleep. The inference may be drawn from this however
that one is startled from sexual dreaming also when the name is called
during sleep walking, or going a step further, that sexual phantasies
are at the bottom of sleep walking in the moonlight and first find their
fulfilment here.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account