Freud - Complete Works (248 page)

Fragment Of An Analysis Of A Case Of Hysteria

1402

   ‘Something occurs to
me,’ she said, ‘but it cannot belong to the dream, for
it is quite recent, whereas I have certainly had the dream
before.’

   ‘That makes no
difference,’ I replied. ‘Start away! It will simply
turn out to be the most recent thing that fits in with the
dream.’

   ‘Very well, then. Father
has been having a dispute with Mother in the last few days, because
she locks the dining-room door at night. My brother’s room,
you see, has no separate entrance, but can only be reached through
the dining-room. Father does not want my brother to be locked in
like that at night. He says it will not do: something might happen
in the night so that it might be necessary to leave the
room.’

   ‘And that made you think of
the risk of fire?’

   ‘Yes.’

   ‘Now, I should like you to
pay close attention to the exact words you used. We may have to
come back to them. You said that "
something might happen in
the night so that it might be necessary to leave the
room
".’

   But Dora had now discovered the
connecting link between the recent exciting cause of the dream and
the original one, for she continued:

   ‘When we arrived at L--
that time, Father and I, he openly said he was afraid of fire. We
arrived in a violent thunderstorm, and saw the small wooden house
without any lightning-conductor. So his anxiety was quite
natural.’

   What I now had to do was to
establish the relation between the events at L-- and the recurrent
dreams which she had had there. I therefore said: ‘Did you
have the dream during your first nights at L-- or during your last
ones? in other words, before or after the scene in the wood by the
lake of which we have heard so much?’ (I must explain that I
knew that the scene had not occurred on the very first day, and
that she had remained at L-- for a few days after it without giving
any hint of the incident.)

  
¹
I laid stress on these words because they
took me aback. They seemed to have an ambiguous ring about them.
Are not certain physical needs referred to in the same words? 
Now, in a line of associations ambiguous words (or, as we may call
them, ‘switch-words’) act like points at a junction. If
the points are switched across from the position in which they
appear to lie in the dream, then we find ourselves on another set
of rails; and along this second track run the thoughts which we are
in search of but which still lie concealed behind the
dream.

Fragment Of An Analysis Of A Case Of Hysteria

1403

   Her first reply was that she did
not know, but after a while she added: ‘Yes. I think it was
after the scene.’

   So now I knew that the dream was
a reaction to that experience. But why had it recurred there three
times? I continued my questions: ‘How long did you stop on at
L-- after the scene?’

   ‘Four more nights. On the
following day I went away with Father.’

   ‘Now I am certain that the
dream was an immediate effect of your experience with Herr K. It
was at L-- that you dreamed it for the first time, and not before.
You have only introduced this uncertainty in your memory so as to
obliterate the connection in your mind.¹ But the figures do
not quite fit in to my satisfaction yet. If you stayed at L-- for
four nights longer, the dream might have occurred four times over.
Perhaps this was so?’

   She no longer disputed my
contention; but instead of answering my question she
proceeded:² ‘In the afternoon after our trip on the
lake, from which we (Herr K. and I) returned at midday, I had gone
to lie down as usual on the sofa in the bed room to have a short
sleep. I suddenly awoke and saw Herr K. standing beside
me . . .’

   ‘In fact, just as you saw
your father standing beside your bed in the dream?’

   ‘Yes. I asked him sharply
what it was he wanted there. By way of reply he said he was not
going to be prevented from coming into his own bedroom when he
wanted; besides, there was something he wanted to fetch. This
episode put me on my guard, and I asked Frau K. whether there was
not a key to the bedroom door. The next morning I locked myself in
while I was dressing. That afternoon, when I wanted to lock myself
in so as to lie down again on the sofa, the key was gone. I was
convinced that Herr K. had removed it.’

   ‘Then here we have the
theme of locking or not locking a room which appeared in the first
association to the dream and also happened to occur in the exciting
cause of the recent recurrence of the dream.³ I wonder whether
the phrase "
I dressed quickly
" may not also belong
to this context?’

  
¹
Compare what was said on
p. 1359
on the subject of doubt
accompanying a recollection.

  
²
This was because a fresh piece of material
had to emerge from her memory before the question I had put could
be answered.

  
³
I suspected, though I did not as yet say so
to Dora, that she had seized upon this element on account of a
symbolic meaning which it possessed. ‘
Zimmer
’
[‘room’] in dreams stands very frequently for
‘
Frauenzimmer
’ [a slightly derogatory word for
‘woman’; literally, ‘women’s
apartments’]. The question whether a woman is
‘open’ or ‘shut’ can naturally not be a
matter of indifference. It is well known, too, what sort of
‘key’ effects the opening in such a case.

Fragment Of An Analysis Of A Case Of Hysteria

1404

   ‘It was then that I made up
my mind not to stop on with the K.’s without Father. On the
subsequent mornings I could not help feeling afraid that Herr K.
would surprise me while I was dressing:
so I always dressed very
quickly
. You see, Father lived at the hotel, and Frau K. used
always to go out early so as to go on expeditions with him. But
Herr K. did not annoy me again.’

   ‘I understand. On the
afternoon of the day after the scene in the wood you formed your
intention of escaping from his persecution, and during the second,
third, and fourth nights you had time to repeat that intention in
your sleep. (You already knew on the second afternoon - before the
dream, therefore - that you would not have the key on the following
morning to lock yourself in with while you were dressing; and you
could then form the design of dressing as quickly as possible.) But
your dream recurred each night, for the very reason that it
corresponded to an intention. An intention remains in existence
until it has been carried out. You said to yourself, as it were:
"I shall have no rest and I can get no quiet sleep until I am
out of this house." In your account of the dream you turned it
the other way and said: "
As soon as I was outside I woke
up
.".’

   At this point I shall interrupt
my report of the analysis in order to compare this small piece of
dream-interpretation with the general statements I have made upon
the mechanism of the formation of dreams. I argued in my book,
The Interpretation of Dreams
(1900
a
), that every
dream is a wish which is represented as fulfilled, that the
representation acts as a takes disguise if the wish is a repressed
one, belonging to the unconscious, and that except in the case of
children’s dreams only an unconscious wish or one which
reaches down into the unconscious has the force necessary for the
formation of a dream. I fancy my theory would have been more
certain of general acceptance if I had contented myself with
maintaining that every dream had a meaning, which could be
discovered by means of a certain process of interpretation; and
that when the interpretation had been completed the dream could be
replaced by thoughts which would fall into place at an easily
recognizable point in the waking mental life of the dreamer. I
might then have gone on to say that the meaning of a dream turned
out to be of as many different sorts as the processes of waking
thought; that in one case it would be a fulfilled wish, in another
a realized fear, or again a reflection persisting on into sleep, or
an intention (as in the instance of Dora’s dream), or a piece
of creative thought during sleep, and so on. Such a theory would no
doubt have proved attractive from its very simplicity, and it might
have been supported by a great many examples of dreams that had
been satisfactorily interpreted, as for instance by the one which
has been analysed in these pages.

Fragment Of An Analysis Of A Case Of Hysteria

1405

   But instead of this I formulated
a generalization according to which the meaning of dreams is
limited to a single form, to the representation of
wishes
,
and by so doing I aroused a universal inclination to dissent. I
must, however, observe that I did not consider it either my right
or my duty to simplify a psychological process so as to make it
more acceptable to my readers, when my researches had shown me that
it presented a complication which could not be reduced to
uniformity until the inquiry had been carried into another field.
It is therefore of special importance to me to show that apparent
exceptions such as this dream of Dora’s, which has shown
itself in the first instance to be the continuation into sleep of
an intention formed during the day - nevertheless lend fresh
support to the rule which is in dispute.

   Much of the dream, however, still
remained to be interpreted, and I proceeded with my questions:
‘What is this about the jewel-case that your mother wanted to
save?’

   ‘Mother is very fond of
jewellery and had had a lot given her by Father.’

   ‘And you?’

   ‘I used to be very fond of
jewellery too, once; but I have not worn any since my illness. -
Once, four years ago’ (a year before the dream),
‘Father and Mother had a great dispute about a piece of
jewellery. Mother wanted to be given a particular thing - pearl
drops to wear in her ears. But Father does not like that kind of
thing, and he brought her a bracelet instead of the drops. She was
furious, and told him that as he had spent so much money on a
present she did not like he had better just give it to some one
else.’

Fragment Of An Analysis Of A Case Of Hysteria

1406

   ‘I dare say you thought to
yourself you would accept it with pleasure.’

   ‘I don’t know.¹
I don’t in the least know how Mother comes into the dream;
she was not with us at L-- at the time.’²

   ‘I will explain that to you
presently. Does nothing else occur to you in connection with the
jewel-case? So far you have only talked about jewellery and have
said nothing about a case.’

   ‘Yes, Herr K. had made me a
present of an expensive jewel-case a little time before.’

   ‘Then a return-present
would have been very appropriate. Perhaps you do not know that
"jewel-case" ["
Schmuckkästchen
"] is
a favourite expression for the same thing that you alluded to not
long ago by means of the reticule you were wearing³ - for the
female genitals, I mean.’

   ‘I knew you would say
that.’
⁴

  
¹
The regular formula with which she
confessed to anything that had been repressed.

  
²
This remark gave evidence of a complete
misunderstanding of the rules of dream-interpretation, though on
other occasions Dora was perfectly familiar with them. This fact,
coupled with the hesitancy and meagreness of her associations with
the jewel-case, showed me that we were here dealing with material
which had been very intensely repressed.

  
³
This reference to the reticule will be
explained further on.

  
⁴
A
very common way of putting aside a piece of knowledge that emerges
from the repressed.

Fragment Of An Analysis Of A Case Of Hysteria

1407

   ‘That is to say, you knew
that it
was
so. - The meaning of the dream is now becoming
even clearer. You said to yourself: "This man is persecuting
me; he wants to force his way into my room. My
‘jewel-case’  is in danger, and if anything
happens it will be Father’s fault." For that reason in
the dream you chose a situation which expresses the opposite - a
danger from which your father is
saving
you. In this part of
the dream everything is turned into its opposite; you will soon
discover why. As you say, the mystery turns upon your mother. You
ask how she comes into the dream?  She is, as you know, your
former rival in your father’s affections. In the incident of
the bracelet, you would have been glad to accept what your mother
had rejected. Now let us just put "give" instead of
"accept" and "withhold" instead of
"reject". Then it means that you were ready to give your
father what your mother withheld from him; and the thing in
question was connected with jewellery.¹ Now bring your mind
back to the jewel-case which Herr K. gave you. You have there the
starting-point for a parallel line of thoughts, in which Herr K. is
to be put in the place of your father just as he was in the matter
of standing beside your bed. He gave you a jewel-case; so you are
to give him your jewel-case. That was why I spoke just now of a
"return-present". In this line of thoughts your mother
must be replaced by Frau K. (You will not deny that she, at any
rate, was present at the time.) So you are ready to give Herr K,
what his wife withholds from him. That is the thought which has had
to be repressed with so much energy, and which has made it
necessary for every one of its elements to be turned into its
opposite. The dream confirms once more what I had already told you
before you dreamt it - that you are summoning up your old love for
your father in order to protect yourself against your love for Herr
K. But what do all these efforts show? Not only that you are afraid
of Herr K., but that you are still more afraid of yourself, and of
the temptation you feel to yield to him. In short, these efforts
prove once more how deeply you loved him.’²