Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/329

Rh dream was observed, for example, by one of Freud's patients, who in a dream was present at the funeral of a beloved nephew. An apparently unessential detail of the dream, a concert ticket, led to the explanation of such an occurrence. The lady intended to attend a concert on the next night, where she expected to see again the man whom she formerly loved and had not yet forgotten, whom she had met for the last time a long while before, at the funeral of another nephew. So the dream, in order to hasten the meeting, sacrificed the other nephew. But the censorship, seemingly knowing that by the dream a harmless wish, and not that of death, was to be fulfilled, let the funeral "pass," without attaching to it any obvious emotional excitation. This analysis may serve as an example for all those dreams which apparently contradict Freud's wish theory, and which have to do with very unwelcome things or even with the non-fulfillment of wishes. If we seek out the latent dream thoughts concealed behind these painfully toned dreams, it becomes clear to us that, as Freud himself expresses it the non-fulfillment of a wish in a dream always means the fulfillment of some other wish.

When we consider the materials of the dream gained by free association from the conscious dream elements, it becomes clear that they flow pretty generally from two opposed sources; from childhood memories on the one hand, and from unobserved experiences of the "dream day," often quite indifferent, which were not reacted to. Indeed, according to Freud's expression, every well- articulated dream stands as it were on two legs, and is shown by analysis to be over-determined (Ucberdeierminierf), that is, to be the fulfillment of both a present and a long suppressed wish.

As an example I may relate the dream of a patient suffering from a nervous difficulty in urination. "A polished floor, wet, as though a pool lay there. Two chairs leaning against the wall. As I look around, I note that the front legs of both chairs are missing, as when one wants to play a joke on some one and has him sit down on a broken chair, and he falls. One of my friends was also there with her affianced."

Free association on the theme of the polished floor gave the fact that on the day before her brother in a rage had thrown a pitcher to the floor, which, with the water spilled over it, looked like the floor in the dream. She also remembered a similar floor from her childhood. On this occasion her brother, who was then very young, had made her laugh so hard that micturition ensued. This part of the dream, which also proved significant for the symptom-creation of the neurosis, accordingly fulfilled infantile erotic wishes which could now in consequence of strong censorship be presented only in allusions.