The unconscious : $b The fundamentals of human personality, normal and abnormalPrince, Morton
Science
The unconscious : $b The fundamentals of human personality, normal and abnormal
Prince, Morton
Psychology, Pathological; Subconsciousness
Then there was interjected an allegorical but very accurate description
of the distressing circumstances to which I have referred and for which,
as a problem of life, the suggested work was advised as a solution. Then
logically followed the wish fulfilment and solution. She heard the voice
of the builder whom she had been helping say to her, “‘Now, here are all
the materials and you must build a temple of your own,’ and I [she]
said, ‘I cannot,’ and he said, ‘you can, and I will help you.’ So I
began to build the stones I had taken him. It was hard work, but I kept
on, and a most beautiful temple grew up.... All the stones were very
brilliant in color, but each one was stained with a drop of blood that
came from a wound in my heart. And the temple grew up; and I handled all
the stones; but somehow the temple grew up of itself and lots of people
were coming from all directions to look at it, and someone, who seemed
to be William James, said, ‘It is the most valuable part of the temple,’
and I felt very proud....’” After another interjection of the
distressing problem of her life just alluded to, the dream ends with the
figure of “a beautiful shining angel with golden spreading wings and the
word ‘Hope’ written on his forehead.” This figure “spread his lovely
wings and rose right up through the temple and became the top of the
spire, a gorgeous shining figure of Hope.”[102]
After this dream was obtained the subject, who had no knowledge that any
suggestion had been given to induce the dream, was told to analyze the
dream herself by the method of associative memories. As is customary in
the use of this method, in which she had had considerable experience,
the memories associated with each element of the dream were obtained.
These memories all led back directly to her interest in psychology and
desire to contribute some original work, and to her own life’s
experiences. Every one of the dream-elements (temple, spires,
foundations, stones, bleeding hands, drop of blood from the wound in her
heart, etc.) evoked associative memories which justified the inference
that these elements were symbolisms of past experiences or of
constructive imagination.
That this dream was determined by, and the explicit imaginary fulfilment
of the antecedent wish made use of in the experiment and motivated by
the suggestion would seem to be conclusively shown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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