My own dream, mentioned on p. 201, of hurrying up the stairs, which is
soon afterward changed into that of being glued to the steps, is
likewise an exhibition dream, because it shows the essential components
of such a dream. It must thus permit of being referred to childish
experiences, and the possession of these ought to tell us how far the
behaviour of the servant girl towards me—her reproach that I had soiled
the carpet—helped her to secure the position which she occupies in the
dream. I am now able to furnish the desired explanation. One learns in
psychoanalysis to interpret temporal proximity by objective connection;
two thoughts, apparently without connection, which immediately follow
one another, belong to a unity which can be inferred; just as an _a_ and
a _t_, which I write down together, should be pronounced as one
syllable, _at_. The same is true of the relation of dreams to one
another. The dream just cited, of the stairs, has been taken from a
series of dreams, whose other members I am familiar with on account of
having interpreted them. The dream which is included in this series must
belong to the same connection. Now the other dreams of the series are
based upon the recollection of a nurse to whom I was entrusted from some
time in the period when I was suckling to the age of two and a half
years, and of whom a hazy recollection has remained in my consciousness.
According to information which I have recently obtained from my mother,
she was old and ugly, but very intelligent and thorough; according to
inferences which I may draw from my dreams, she did not always give me
the kindest treatment, and said hard words to me when I showed
insufficient aptitude for education in cleanliness. Thus by attempting
to continue this educational work the servant girl develops a claim to
be treated by me, in the dream, as an incarnation of the prehistoric old
woman. It is to be assumed that the child bestowed his love upon this
governess in spite of her bad treatment of him.[BW]
Another series of dreams which might be called typical are those which
have the content that a dear relative, parent, brother, or sister, child
or the like, has died. Two classes of these dreams must immediately be
distinguished—those in which the dreamer remains unaffected by sorrow
while dreaming, and those in which he feels profound grief on account of
the death, in which he even expresses this grief during sleep by fervid
tears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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