_The hall—many guests, whom we are receiving._
We were living this summer at the Bellevue, in an isolated house on one
of the hills which lie close to the Kahlenberg. This house was once
intended as a place of amusement, and on this account has unusually
high, hall-like rooms. The dream also occurred at the Bellevue, a few
days before the birthday of my wife. During the day, my wife had
expressed the expectation that several friends, among them Irma, would
come to us as guests for her birthday. My dream, then, anticipates this
situation: It is the birthday of my wife, and many people, among them
Irma, are received by us as guests in the great hall of the Bellevue.
_I reproach Irma for not having accepted the solution. I say: “If you
still have pains, it is your own fault.”_
I might have said this also, or did say it, while awake. At that time I
had the opinion (recognised later to be incorrect) that my task was
limited to informing patients of the hidden meaning of their symptoms.
Whether they then accepted or did not accept the solution upon which
success depended—for that I was not responsible. I am thankful to this
error, which fortunately has now been overcome, for making life easier
for me at a time when, with all my unavoidable ignorance, I was to
produce successful cures. But I see in the speech which I make to Irma
in the dream, that above all things I do not want to be to blame for the
pains which she still feels. If it is Irma’s own fault, it cannot be
mine. Should the purpose of the dream be looked for in this quarter?
_Irma’s complaints; pains in the neck, abdomen, and stomach; she is
drawn together._
Pains in the stomach belonged to the symptom-complex of my patient, but
they were not very prominent; she complained rather of sensations of
nausea and disgust. Pains in the neck and abdomen and constriction of
the throat hardly played a part in her case. I wonder why I decided upon
this choice of symptoms, nor can I for the moment find the reason.
_She looks pale and bloated._
My patient was always ruddy. I suspect that another person is here being
substituted for her.
_I am frightened at the thought that I must have overlooked some organic
affection._
This, as the reader will readily believe, is a constant fear with the
specialist, who sees neurotics almost exclusively, and who is accustomed
to ascribe so many manifestations, which other physicians treat as
organic, to hysteria. On the other hand, I am haunted by a faint doubt—I
know not whence it comes—as to whether my fear is altogether honest. If
Irma’s pains are indeed of organic origin, I am not bound to cure them.
My treatment, of course, removes only hysterical pains. It seems to me,
in fact, that I wish to find an error in the diagnosis; in that case the
reproach of being unsuccessful would be removed.
_I take her to the window in order to look into her throat. She resists
a little, like a woman who has false teeth. I think she does not need
them anyway._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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