Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/92

88 On the other hand, there are numerous delusions which are undoubtedly due to what Freud and his school call a “wish fulfilment.” Burrow had described such a case. An unmarried woman for a number of years had complained of weakness, indigestion, distension of the abdomen, pain in the back and groin, which conditions, as far as could be determined, were not associated with any abnormal physical state. A psychoanalysis of this patient showed that she had had very great desires to be married; her dreams were of marriage and of bearing children; and her mental life had been colored by or made up largely of these wishes. The physical conditions of which she complained were taken by Burrow to be the outward signs of the conditions which she hoped she might have, namely, those of pregnancy as a result of marriage. Jones has also well described a case of a similar nature. This woman exhibited erythrophobia, i.e., fear of red, and at the same time she believed that she was responsible for or had actually caused the death of her mother. A careful mental examination showed that for many years she had been compelled to remain at home to take care of her mother, who was an invalid, that because of this she had been unable to have pleasures similar to those which she found girls of her age were having, and from time to time these conditions led to rebellious ideas. The health of her mother improved to such an extent that she was enabled to go to college or school and thus again take up her life in association with other girls. At school there was a debate in which she took part and in which, as one of the contestants on one side, she wore a red shield on her arm. Subsequent to this event she dreamed of seeing her mother lying dead, in a room on the wall of which there was a red shield. On account of worry over her dream, she went home, taking the red shield with her. She was pleased to find her mother very well and, laughingly explaining her fears, she pinned the red shield on the wall of her mother’s room. A day or two later upon awakening in the morning, she went to see her mother and found her dead in bed. Thence, it is explained, originated her belief that the act of pinning the red badge upon her mother’s wall had something to do with the death of her mother, and thence also arose the fear of red. It was also learned that because of the lack of pleasure in life she had at times considered how much better off she would be if her mother were dead, and perhaps had also unconsciously wished for such a solution of her difficulties. When, however, there was accomplished the actual result which she had wished, her action in placing the red shield upon her mother’s wall became prominent in her mind and she believed she had been warned about this in her dream.

Numerous other cases of a similar character might be cited. Most if not all, delusions are interpreted by the Freudian school in this manner. Brill, for example, interprets certain delusions of grandeur