Sleep Walking and Moon Walking: A Medico-Literary StudySadger, J.
Science
Sleep Walking and Moon Walking: A Medico-Literary Study
Sadger, J.
Psychoanalysis; Sleepwalking
It soon came to light that she and her sister in their early childhood
and again between the ages of eight and thirteen shared the parents'
sleeping room and had repeatedly spied upon their sexual intercourse.
Her present fear is also evidently the wish to put herself in the place
of the mother, to whom the father comes. She recalls yet one more
episode: "When I was nine or ten years old, the healthy brother was ill
with typhoid and the parents were up nights on his account. We sisters
were sent to stay elsewhere, where we had opportunity to play with a boy
who carried on a number of sexual things with us. I then dreamed of him
at night and phantasied the sexual things which I had done with him in
the daytime. Apparently I had also at that time played underneath with
my genitals. At the same time, while my brother had typhoid, I was
unwilling to go to sleep and could not, because I could have no rest
while my brother was ill." It is clear without further discussion to one
who understands these things that it was not anxiety for the brother but
secret, yet insistent sexual wishes which caused the sleeplessness. It
is finally significant that, when later she dreamed of a burglar, he
always came after her with a knife, or choked her, as her cousin and
mother had often done to her.
As we consider this third case of moon affectivity we find again
familiar phenomena, connections with early sexual dreams and the parent
complex. Especially noteworthy is further her direct falling in love
with the moon, to which she addresses her adoration in verses and to
which she even offers her virginity. It is as if she saw in it a man,
who should free her from her sexual need. One is reminded how in the
first case, the one cured by psychoanalysis, the four-year-old girl
sought continually the moon's face on the ground of a students' song. It
could not, we regret to say, be ascertained, in the absence of a
psychoanalysis, whether in this case the heavenly body represented to
the moon walker some definite person or not.
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