Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/19

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A MAN'S UNCONSCIOUS PHANTASY OF PREGNANCY 273

rather regulation of the strengthened narcissism. Such was found in connection with an important dream, in which there were cer- tain saving-phantasies which had to do with various respected in- dividuals. The dream included a scene in which a town was on fire, and in the midst of tremendous upheaval he carried a town councillor from out of a burning house into the open, and as thanks for the rescue heard him utter resignation to an ajmless life.i A man who had natural endowments similar to those of the patient, but a finer intellect and more influential rank, would prob- ably have achieved very remarkable and profitable work in life. Such hero phantasies, which, dissociated from reality, nevertheless continued to exist in imagination, could always be traced back to the first love-object, the grandfather, who had once rescued the boy from a mad bull. In the reflector of narcissism, this ad- venture underwent transformation into its opposite. Another group of phantasies had to do with aversion from the woman's part in the process of reproduction, in which way he reacted analogously to the authors of the Old Testament story. He could never be .'ri.?: reconciled to the idea that Nature had left the important operat-

ion of actual construction of the body, and carrying it, entirely to woman. Apparently he was running close therein to the chief complex of liis neurosis. A further step in such phantasies is the belief in self-creation, which was demonstrably present in the patient.

It has not been possible to present this summary account of his narcissism in more coherent form, because analysis achieved in this respect isolated and disconnected suggestions, rather than definite and final conclusions; further because the psychical equil- ibrium of the patient himself did not allow him ultimately to penetrate beyond this stage of development. Particularly, as far as these saving and self-creation phantasies are concerned, they are as a rule not associated with the syndrome of hysteria, but belong to complexes of the psychoses. Though the case under treat- ment may seem strange in regard to the regions of feeling that have won recognition, further understanding can be approached by comparison with cases that belong to the realm of psychiatry.

» The dream reminds one of the poignant poetic scene in the Aeneid, which tells how the hero Aeneas carries his father Anchises out of burning Troy. Similarly in other dreams mythological traces could be demonstrated The patient described this dream as prophetic, and brought it into lelation with political events. His tendency to prophesy will be discussed presently

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