Analysis. The man was rather authoritative looking, and his peculiar
glittering eye at once recalled St. Paul’s Cathedral, near Rome, where
she saw in mosaics the Popes that have so far ruled. One of the early
Popes had a golden eye (this was really an optical illusion which the
guides usually call attention to). Further associations showed that the
general physiognomy corresponded to her own clergyman (Pope), and the
shape of the light beard recalled her doctor (myself), while the stature
of the man in the dream recalled her father. All these persons stand in
the same relation to her; they are all guiding and directing her course
of life. On further questioning, the golden eye recalled gold—money—the
rather expensive psychoanalytic treatment which gives her a great deal
of concern. Gold, moreover, recalls the gold cure for alcoholism—Mr. D.,
whom she would have married if it had not been for his clinging to the
disgusting alcohol habit—she does not object to a person taking an
occasional drink; she herself sometimes drinks beer and cordials—this
again brings her back to her visit to St. Paul’s without the walls and
its surroundings. She remembers that in the neighbouring monastery of
the Three Fountains she drank a liquor made of eucalyptus by the
Trappist monks who inhabit this monastery. She then relates how the
monks transformed this malarial and swampy region into a dry and
healthful neighbourhood by planting there many eucalyptus trees. The
word “uclamparia” then resolves itself into eucalyptus and malaria, and
the word “wet” refers to the former swampy nature of the place. Wet also
suggests dry. Dry is actually the name of the man whom she would have
married except for his over-indulgence in alcohol. The peculiar name of
Dry is of Germanic origin (drei = three) and hence alludes to the Abbey
of the Three (drei) Fountains above mentioned. In talking about Mr.
Dry’s habit she used the strong words, “He could drink a fountain.” Mr.
Dry jocosely refers to his habit by saying, “You know I must drink
because I am always _dry_” (referring to his name). The eucalyptus also
refers to her neurosis, which was at first diagnosed as malaria. She
went to Italy because her attacks of anxiety, which were accompanied by
marked trembling and shivering, were thought to be of malarial origin.
She bought some eucalyptus oil from the monks, and she maintains that it
has done her much good.
The condensation _uclamparia—wet_ is therefore the point of junction for
the dream as well as for the neurosis.[DO]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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