Page:Freud - The interpretation of dreams.djvu/367

Rh holidays, my friend from Berlin and I. A little girl asked me to tell her the way to a certain street; I had to tell her I did not know it, whereupon I remarked to my friend, "I hope that later on in life the little one will show more perspicacity in selecting the persons by whom she allows herself to be guided." Shortly afterwards a sign caught my eye: "Dr, Herod, office hours...." I said to myself: "I hope this colleague does not happen to be a children's specialist." Meanwhile my friend had been developing his views on the biological significance of bilateral symmetry, and had begun a sentence as follows: "If we had but one eye in the middle of our foreheads like Cyclops...." This leads us to the speech of the professor in the preliminary dream: "My son, the myopic." And now I have been led to the chief source for Geseres. Many years ago, when this son of Professor M., who is to-day an independent thinker, was still sitting on his school-bench, he contracted a disease of the eye, which the doctor declared gave cause for anxiety. He was of the opinion that as long as it remained in one eye it would not matter; if, however, it should extend to the other eye, it would be serious. The disease healed in the one eye without leaving any bad effects; shortly afterwards, however, its symptoms actually appeared in the other eye. The terrified mother of the boy immediately summoned the physician to the seclusion of her country resort. But he took another view of the matter. "What sort of 'Geseres' is this you are making?" he said to his mother with impatience. "If one side got well, the other side will get well too." And so it turned out.

And now as to the connection between this and myself and those dear to me. The school-bench upon which the son of Professor M. learned his first lessons has become the property of my eldest son—it was given to his mother—into whose lips I put the words of parting in the dream. One of the wishes that can be attached to this transference may now easily be guessed. This school-bench is intended by its construction to guard the child from becoming shortsighted and one-sided. Hence, myopia (and behind the Cyclops) and the discussion about bilateralism. The concern about one-sidedness is of two-fold signification; along with the bodily