Page:Freud - Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses.djvu/40

26. It was the dining room of the house in which she waited with the children for the arrival of the gentlemen from the factory for dinner.—"Now we are all at the table, the gentlemen, the French maid, the housekeeper, the children and I. It is the same as usual."—"Just keep on looking at that picture. It will soon become developed and specialized."—"Yes, there is a guest, the chief accountant, an old gentleman who loves the children like his own grandchildren, but he dines with us so frequently that it is nothing unusual."—"Just have patience, keep on looking at the picture, something will certainly happen."—"Nothing happens. We leave the table, the children take leave and go with us up to the second floor as usual."—"Well?"—"It really is something unusual, I now recognize the scene. As the children take leave the chief accountant attempts to kiss them, but my master jumps up and shouts at him, 'Don't kiss the children!' I then experienced a stitch in the heart, and as the gentlemen were smoking, this odor remained in my memory."

This, therefore, was the second, deeper seated scene causing the trauma and leaving the memory symbol. But why was this scene so effective? I then asked her which scene happened first, this one or the one with the burned pastry?—"The last scene happened first by almost two months."—"Why did you feel the stitch at the father's interference? The reproof was not meant for you."—"It was really not right to rebuke an old gentleman in such manner who was a dear friend and a guest; it could have been said quietly."—"Then you were really affected by your master's impetuosity? Were you perhaps ashamed of him, or have you thought, 'If he could become so impetuous to an old friend guest over such a trifle, how would he act towards me if I were his wife?'"—"No, that is not it."—"But still it was about his impetuosity?"—"Yes, about the kissing of the children ; he never liked that." Under the pressure of my hands there emerged a still older scene which was the real effective trauma and which bestowed on the scene with the chief accountant the traumatic effectivity.

A few months before a lady friend visited the house and on leaving kissed both children on the lips. The father, who was present, controlled himself and said nothing to the lady, but when she left he was very angry at the unfortunate governess.