Here, then, we have a definite case in which by the analysis of a single and
incidentally the first dream we have arrived at the genesis of the
psychoneurotic disorder.
From this same standpoint I have studied another case, a married woman of
twenty-nine, with marked neurasthenic and hysterical symptoms (including
astasia-abasia, anesthesias, palpitation of the heart, throbbing sensations
in the stomach and a great many other symptoms). This case I studied for
upwards of four months, with almost daily visits to the hospital where she
was being cared for. I made quite an intensive study of her dream life and
of her past life history, and I find that had I taken the very first dream
which I obtained from her and conducted a thorough analysis with this dream
as my first mile-post, I would have arrived at a full genesis of the
condition, which was of ten years' duration. In this case, also, I must
repeat, there was no indication of repression, the patient having always
understood very well the origin and cause of her condition. Here, too, we
find that the knowledge alone did not lead to her recovery. This case I
shall report in detail at a later date.
In this connection, I cannot keep from reciting the dream of a young girl of
twelve which I had the good fortune to study. She came to me complaining
about her throat. There was something dry, "a sticking" in her throat. She
did not know what it was. Would I look at her throat? I found nothing
abnormal, and was about to dismiss her when I observed that her hands were
bluish. I felt them. They were cold. I thought at once of probable heart
disease. I was soon informed that she had heart disease. She had been told
so by other doctors. This proved to be the case, as I learned on examining
her.
Being keenly interested in this subject of dreams, I wondered whether, if
she were subject to periods of cardiac decompensation of varying degree, she
did not have dreams of a terrifying nature (about burglars, robbery and the
like), because of embarrassment of breathing during sleep, resulting from
her cardiac insufficiency and consequent circulatory and respiratory
disturbance. I asked her whether she had been dreaming much of late. She
told me she had had a dream the preceding night. What was it? I inquired.
She had dreamed that she had died. Her mother had put her in a coffin,
carried her to the cemetery and then proceeded to bury her. Her mother had
first forced something into her mouth (it seemed to be a whitish powder),
and then lowered her into the grave and filled the grave with dirt. That is
all that she could remember.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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