In still another case it may be definitely ascertained, without the aid
of dream interpretation, that the dream contains elements from
childhood; that is, if it be a so-called _perennial_ dream, which being
first dreamt in childhood, later appears again and again after adult age
has been reached. I may add a few examples of this sort to those already
familiar, although I have never made the acquaintance of such a
perennial dream in my own case. A physician in the thirties tells me
that a yellow lion, about which he can give the most detailed
information, has often appeared in his dream-life from the earliest
period of his childhood to the present day. This lion, known to him from
his dreams, was one day discovered _in natura_ as a long-forgotten
object made of porcelain, and on that occasion the young man learned
from his mother that this object had been his favourite toy in early
childhood, a fact which he himself could no longer remember.
If we now turn from the manifest dream content to the dream thoughts
which are revealed only upon analysis, the co-operation of childhood
experiences may be found to exist even in dreams whose content would not
have led us to suspect anything of the sort. I owe a particularly
delightful and instructive example of such a dream to my honoured
colleague of the “yellow lion.” After reading Nansen’s account of his
polar expedition, he dreamt that he was giving the bold explorer
electrical treatment in an ice field for an ischæmia of which the latter
complained! In the analysis of this dream, he remembered a story of his
childhood, without which the dream remains entirely unintelligible. When
he was a child, three or four years old, he was listening attentively to
a conversation of older people about trips of exploration, and presently
asked papa whether exploration was a severe illness. He had apparently
confused “trips” with “rips,” and the ridicule of his brothers and
sisters prevented his ever forgetting the humiliating experience.
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