Page:Jung - The psychology of dementia praecox.djvu/78

54 suffice to produce a dreamy movement of complex-thoughts. The conscious activity, however, prevents the complex from becoming clear, hence it can only show itself indistinctly, and this eventually happens in the melody automatisms which contain the thought of the complex in a general metamorphosed form. The resemblance lies in the situation or in the frame of mind; as, "Lo the conquering," etc., Bridal March, "There were once two royal children, etc.," or in the expression ("My mother has said, etc."). The complex-thought in these cases was not clear to consciousness, but manifested itself more or less symbolically. How far such symbolic constellations can go is best seen in the wonderful example of Freud in his "Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens." From the sentence "Exoriar aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor" Freud was able to trace back to the forgotten word "aliquis" [a—liquis—liquid—fluid—blood—miracle of S. Gennario—] the thought of a much overdue period in the beloved. I shall quote a similar example from my own experience in order to corroborate Freud's mechanisms.

A gentleman wishes to recite the familiar poem ("Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam") "A pine tree stands alone, etc." In the line "he felt drowsy" he becomes hopelessly stuck. With the words "with white sheet" he forgot everything. This forgetting in such well known verse seemed to me rather peculiar and I let him reproduce what came into his mind with the words "with white sheet." The following series resulted: "White sheet makes one think of the cloth for the dead—a linen cloth with which one covers a dead person—(pause)—now I think of a near friend—his brother died quite recently—he is supposed to have died of heart disease—he was also very corpulent—my friend is corpulent, too, and I thought it might also happen to him—probably he does not exercise enough—when I heard of this death I suddenly became frightened, it could also happen to me, as we in our family are predisposed to obesity—my grand-father also died of heart disease—I too find myself somewhat too corpulent and have therefore within the last few days begun treatment for reducing fat."

From this example it can be clearly seen how the repression draws out of consciousness symbolic similarities and chains them to the complex. This gentleman unconsciously identified himself with the pine tree which was enveloped in a white sheet.