Part 52
III. This saying interested me in its relation to the typical significance of dreams of dental irritation as a substitute for onanism as maintained by Freud in his _Traumdeutung_ (2nd edition, p. 193), for the teeth and the male genital (Bub-boy) are brought in certain relations even in the popular saying. On the evening of the same day I therefore read the passage in question in the _Traumdeutung_, and found there among other things the statements which will be quoted in a moment, the influence of which on my dream is as plainly recognisable as the influence of the two above-mentioned experiences. Freud writes concerning dreams of dental irritation that ‘in the case of men nothing else than cravings for masturbation from the time of puberty furnishes the motive power for these dreams,’ p. 193. Further, ‘I am of the opinion that the frequent modifications of the typical dream of dental irritation—that _e.g._ of another person drawing the tooth from the dreamer’s mouth—are made intelligible by means of the same explanation. It may seem problematic, however, how “dental irritation” can arrive at this significance. I here call attention to the transference from below to above (in the dream in question from the lower to the upper jaw), which occurs so frequently, which is at the service of sexual repression, and by means of which all kinds of sensations and intentions occurring in hysteria which ought to be enacted in the genitals can be realised upon less objectionable parts of the body,’ p. 194. ‘But I must also refer to another connection contained in an idiomatic expression. In our country there is in use an indelicate designation for the act of masturbation, namely: To pull one out, or to pull one down,’ p. 195, 2nd edition. This expression had been familiar to me in early youth as a designation for onanism, and from here on it will not be difficult for the experienced dream interpreter to get access to the infantile material which may lie at the basis of this dream. I only wish to add that the facility with which the tooth in the dream came out, and the fact that it became transformed after coming out into an upper incisor, recalls to me an experience of childhood when I myself easily and painlessly pulled out one of my wobbling front teeth. This episode, which I can still to this day distinctly remember with all its details, happened at the same early period in which my first conscious attempts at onanism began—(Concealing Memory). The reference of Freud to an assertion of C. G. Jung that dreams of dental irritation in women signify parturition (footnote p. 194), together with the popular belief in the significance of toothache in pregnant women, has established an opposition between the feminine significance and the masculine (puberty). In this connection I recall an earlier dream which I dreamed soon after I was discharged by the dentist after the treatment, that the gold crowns which had just been put in fell out, whereupon I was greatly chagrined in the dream on account of the considerable expense, concerning which I had not yet stopped worrying. In view of a certain experience this dream now becomes comprehensible as a commendation of the material advantages of masturbation when contrasted with every form of the economically less advantageous object-love (gold crowns are also Austrian gold coins).
Theoretically this case seems to show a double interest. First it verifies the connection revealed by Freud, inasmuch as the ejaculation in the dream takes place during the act of tooth-pulling. For no matter in what form a pollution may appear, we are obliged to look upon it as a masturbatic gratification which takes place without the help of mechanical excitation. Moreover the gratification by pollution in this case does not take place, as is usually the case, through an imaginary object, but it is without an object; and, if one may be allowed to say so, it is purely autoerotic, or at most it perhaps shows a slight homosexual thread (the dentist).
The second point which seems to be worth mentioning is the following: The objection is quite obvious that we are seeking here to validate the Freudian conception in a quite superfluous manner, for the experiences of the reading itself are perfectly sufficient to explain to us the content of the dream. The visit to the dentist, the conversation with the lady, and the reading of the _Traumdeutung_ are sufficient to explain why the sleeper, who was also disturbed during the night by toothache, should dream this dream, it may even explain the removal of the sleep-disturbing pain (by means of the presentation of the removal of the painful tooth and simultaneous over-accentuation of the dreaded painful sensation through libido). But no matter how much of this assumption we may admit, we cannot earnestly maintain that the readings of Freud’s explanations have produced in the dreamer the connection of the tooth-pulling with the act of masturbation; it could not even have been made effective had it not been for the fact, as the dreamer himself admitted (‘to pull one off’) that this association had already been formed long ago. What may have still more stimulated this association in connection with the conversation with the lady is shown by a later assertion of the dreamer that while reading the _Traumdeutung_ he could not, for obvious reasons, believe in this typical meaning of dreams of dental irritation, and entertained the wish to know whether it held true for all dreams of this nature. The dream now confirms this at least for his own person, and shows him why he had to doubt it. The dream is therefore also in this respect the fulfilment of a wish; namely, to be convinced of the importance and stability of this conception of Freud.
Footnote CJ:
A young colleague, who is entirely free from nervousness, tells me in this connection: “I know from my own experience that while swinging, and at the moment at which the downward movement had the greatest impetus, I used to get a curious feeling in my genitals, which I must designate, although it was not really pleasant to me, as a voluptuous feeling.” I have often heard from patients that their first erections accompanied by voluptuous sensations had occurred in boyhood while they were climbing. It is established with complete certainty by psychoanalyses that the first sexual impulses have often originated in the scufflings and wrestlings of childhood.
Footnote CK:
This naturally holds true only for German-speaking dreamers who are acquainted with the vulgarism “_vögeln_.”
Footnote CL:
_Sammlung kl. Schriften zur Neurosenlehre_, zweite Folge, 1909.
Footnote CM:
_Cf._ the author’s _Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory_, translated by A. A. Brill.
Footnote CN:
W. Stekel, _Die Sprache des Traumes_, 1911.
Footnote CO:
Alf. Adler, “Der Psychische Hermaphroditismus im Leben und in der Neurose,” _Fortschritte der Medizin_, 1910, No. 16, and later works in the _Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse_, 1, 1910–1911.
Footnote CP:
I have published a typical example of such a veiled Oedipus dream in No. 1 of the _Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse_; another with a detailed analysis was reported in the same journal, No. IV., by Otto Rank. Indeed the ancients were not unfamiliar with the symbolic interpretation of the open Oedipus dream (see O. Rank,[108] p. 534); thus a dream of sexual relations with the mother has been transmitted to us by Julius Cæsar which the oneiroscopists interpreted as a favourable omen for taking possession of the earth (Mother-earth). It is also known that the oracle declared to the Tarquinii that that one of them would become ruler of Rome who should first kiss the mother (_osculum, matri tulerit_), which Brutus conceived as referring to the mother-earth (_terram osculo contigit, scilicet quod ea communia mater omnium mortalium esset_, Livius, I., lxi.). These myths and interpretations point to a correct psychological knowledge. I have found that persons who consider themselves preferred or favoured by their mothers manifest in life that confidence in themselves and that firm optimism which often seems heroic and brings about real success by force.
Footnote CQ:
It is only of late that I have learned to value the significance of fancies and unconscious thoughts about life in the womb. They contain the explanation of the curious fear felt by so many people of being buried alive, as well as the profoundest unconscious reason for the belief in a life after death which represents nothing but a projection into the future of this mysterious life before birth. _The act of birth, moreover, is the first experience with fear, and is thus the source and model of the emotion of fear._
Footnote CR:
For such a dream see Pfister: “Ein Fall von Psychoanalytischer Seelensorge und Seelenheilung,” _Evangelische Freiheit_, 1909. Concerning the symbol of “saving” see my lecture, “Die Zukünftigen Chancen der psychoanalytischen Therapie,” _Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse_, No. I., 1910. Also “Beiträge zur Psychologie des Liebeslebens, I. Ueber einen besonderen Typus der objektwahl beim Manne,” _Jahrbuch_, Bleuler-Freud, vol. ii., 1910.
Footnote CS:
_Cf._ the works of Bleuler and of his pupils Maeder, Abraham, and others of the Zürich school upon symbolism, and of those authors who are not physicians (Kleinpaul and others), to which they refer.
Footnote CT:
In this country the President, the Governor, and the Mayor often represent the father in the dream. (Translator.)
Footnote CU:
I may here repeat what I have said in another place (“Die Zukünftigen Chancen der psychoanalytischen Therapie,” _Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse_, I., No. 1 and 2, 1910): “Some time ago I learned that a psychologist who is unfamiliar with our work remarked to one of my friends that we are surely over-estimating the secret sexual significance of dreams. He stated that his most frequent dream was of climbing a stairway, and that there was surely nothing sexual behind this. Our attention having been called to this objection, we directed our investigations to the occurrence of stairways, stairs, and ladders in the dream, and we soon ascertained that stairs (or anything analogous to them) represent a definite symbol of coitus. The basis for this comparison is not difficult to find; under rhythmic intervals and with increasing difficulty in breathing one reaches to a height, and may come down again in a few rapid jumps. Thus the rhythm of coitus is recognisable in climbing stairs. Let us not forget to consider the usage of language. It shows us that the “climbing” or “mounting” is, without further addition, used as a substitutive designation of the sexual act. In French the step of the stairway is called “_la marche_”; “_un vieux marcheur_” corresponds exactly to our “an old climber.””
Footnote CV:
In this country where the word “necktie” is almost exclusively used, the translator has also found it to be a symbol of a burdensome woman from whom the dreamer longs to be freed—“necktie—something tied to my neck like a heavy weight—my fiancée,” are the associations from the dream of a man who eventually broke his marriage engagement.
Footnote CW:
In spite of all the differences between Scherner’s conception of dream symbolism and the one developed here, I must still assert that Scherner[58] should be recognised as the true discoverer of symbolism in dreams, and that the experience of psychoanalysis has brought his book into honourable repute after it had been considered fantastic for about fifty years.
Footnote CX:
From “Nachträge zur Traumdeutung,” _Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse_, I., No. 5 and 6, 1911.
Footnote CY:
“Beiträge zur Traumdeutung,” _Jahrbuch für Psychoanalyt. und psychop. Forsch._, Bd. I., 1909, p. 473. Here also (p. 475) a dream is reported in which a hat with a feather standing obliquely in the middle symbolises the (impotent) man.
Footnote CZ:
_Cf._ _Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse_, I.
Footnote DA:
Or chapel-vagina.
Footnote DB:
Symbol of coitus.
Footnote DC:
Mons veneris.
Footnote DD:
Crines pubis.
Footnote DE:
Demons in cloaks and capucines are, according to the explanation of a man versed in the subject, of a phallic nature.
Footnote DF:
The two halves of the scrotum.
Footnote DG:
See _Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse_, vol. i., p. 2.
Footnote DH:
This Hebrew word is well known in German-speaking countries, even among non-Jews, and signifies an unlucky, awkward person. (Translator.)
Footnote DI:
In estimating this description of the author one may recall the significance of stairway dreams, referred to on p. 246.
Footnote DJ:
The fantastic nature of the situation relating to the nurse of the dreamer is shown by the objectively ascertained circumstance that the nurse in this case was his mother. Furthermore, I may call attention to the regret of the young man in the anecdote (p. 172), that he had not taken better advantage of his opportunity with the nurse as probably the source of the present dream.
Footnote DK:
This is the real inciter of the dream.
Footnote DL:
By way of supplement. Such books are poison to a young girl. She herself in youth had drawn much information from forbidden books.
Footnote DM:
A further train of thought leads to _Penthesileia_ by the same author: cruelty towards her lover.
Footnote DN:
Given by translator as author’s example could not be translated.
Footnote DO:
The same analysis and synthesis of syllables—a veritable chemistry of syllables—serves us for many a jest in waking life. “What is the cheapest method of obtaining silver? You go to a field where silver-berries are growing and pick them; then the berries are eliminated and the silver remains in a free state.” The first person who read and criticised this book made the objection to me—which other readers will probably repeat—“that the dreamer often appears too witty.” That is true, as long as it applies to the dreamer; it involves a condemnation only when its application is extended to the interpreter of the dream. In waking reality I can make very little claim to the predicate “witty”; if my dreams appear witty, this is not the fault of my individuality, but of the peculiar psychological conditions under which the dream is fabricated, and is intimately connected with the theory of wit and the comical. The dream becomes witty because the shortest and most direct way to the expression of its thoughts is barred for it: the dream is under constraint. My readers may convince themselves that the dreams of my patients give the impression of being witty (attempting to be witty), in the same degree and in a greater than my own. Nevertheless this reproach impelled me to compare the technique of wit with the dream activity, which I have done in a book published in 1905, on _Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious_. (Author.)
Footnote DP:
Lasker died of progressive paralysis, that is of the consequences of an infection caught from a woman (lues); Lasalle, as is well known, was killed in a duel on account of a lady.
Footnote DQ:
In the case of a young man who was suffering from obsessions, but whose intellectual functions were intact and highly developed, I recently found the only exception to this rule. The speeches which occurred in his dreams did not originate in speeches which he had heard or had made himself, but corresponded to the undisfigured wording of his obsessive thoughts, which only came to his consciousness in a changed state while he was awake.
Footnote DR:
Psychic intensity, value, and emphasis due to the interest of an idea are, of course, to be kept distinct from sensational intensity, and from intensity of that which is conceived.
Footnote DS:
Since I consider this reference of dream disfigurement to the censor as the essence of my dream theory, I here insert the latter portion of a story “Traumen wie Wachen” from _Phantasien eines Realisten_, by Lynkus, Vienna, (second edition, 1900), in which I find this chief feature of my theory reproduced:—
“Concerning a man who possesses the remarkable quality of never dreaming nonsense....”
“Your marvellous characteristic of dreaming as you wake is based upon your virtues, upon your goodness, your justice, and your love for truth; it is the moral clearness of your nature which makes everything about you intelligible.”
“But if you think the matter over carefully,” replied the other, “I almost believe that all people are created as I am, and that no human being ever dreams nonsense! A dream which is so distinctly remembered that it can be reproduced, which is therefore no dream of delirium, _always_ has a meaning; why, it cannot be otherwise! For that which is in contradiction with itself can never be grouped together as a whole. The fact that time and space are often thoroughly shaken up detracts nothing from the real meaning of the dream, because neither of them has had any significance whatever for its essential contents. We often do the same thing in waking life; think of the fairy-tale, of many daring and profound phantastic creations, about which only an ignorant person would say: ‘That is nonsense! For it is impossible.’”
“If it were only always possible to interpret dreams correctly, as you have just done with mine!” said the friend.
“That is certainly not an easy task, but the dreamer himself ought always to succeed in doing it with a little concentration of attention.... You ask why it is generally impossible? Your dreams seem to conceal something secret, something unchaste of a peculiar and higher nature, a certain mystery in your nature which cannot easily be revealed by thought; and it is for that reason that your dreaming seems so often to be without meaning, or even to be a contradiction. But in the profoundest sense this is by no means the case; indeed it cannot be true at all, for it is always the same person, whether he is asleep or awake.”
Footnote DT:
I have since given the complete analysis and synthesis of two dreams in the _Bruchstueck einer Hysterieanalyse_, 1905.
Footnote DU:
From a work of K. Abel, _Der Gegensinn der Urworte_, 1884 (see my review of it in the Bleuler-Freud _Jahrbuch_, II., 1910), I learned with surprise a fact which is confirmed by other philologists, that the oldest languages behaved in this regard quite like the dream. They originally had only one word for both extremes in a series of qualities or activities (strong—weak, old—young, far—near, to tie—to separate), and formed separate designations for the two extremes only secondarily through slight modifications of the common primitive word. Abel demonstrated these relationships with rare exceptions in the old Egyptian, and he was able to show distinct remnants of the same development in the Semitic and Indo-Germanic languages.
Footnote DV:
If I do not know behind which of the persons which occur in the dream I am to look for my ego, I observe the following rule: That person in the dream who is subject to an emotion which I experience while asleep, is the one that conceals my ego.
Footnote DW:
The hysterical attack sometimes uses the same device—the inversion of time-relations—for the purpose of concealing its meaning from the spectator. The attack of a hysterical girl, for example, consists in enacting a little romance, which she has unconsciously fancied in connection with an encounter in the street car. A man, attracted by the beauty of her foot, addresses her while she is reading, whereupon she goes with him and experiences a stormy love scene. Her attack begins with the representation of this scene in writhing movements of the body (accompanied by motions of the lips to signify kissing, entwining of the arms for embraces), whereupon she hurries into another room, sits down in a chair, lifts her skirt in order to show her foot, acts as though she were about to read a book, and speaks to me (answers me).
Footnote DX:
Accompanying hysterical symptoms: Failure to menstruate and profound depression, which was the chief ailment of the patient.
Footnote DY:
A reference to a childhood experience is after complete analysis shown to exist by the following intermediaries: “The Moor has done his duty, the Moor _may go_.” And then follows the waggish question: “How old is the Moor when he has done his duty? One year. Then he may go.” (It is said that I came into the world with so much black curly hair that my young mother declared me to be a Moor.) The circumstance that I do not find my hat is an experience of the day which has been turned to account with various significations. Our servant, who is a genius at stowing away things, had hidden the hat. A suppression of sad thoughts about death is also concealed behind the conclusion of the dream: “I have not nearly done my duty yet; I may not go yet.” Birth and death, as in the dream that occurred shortly before about Goethe and the paralytic (p. 345).
Footnote DZ:
Cf. _Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten_, 2nd edit. 1912, and “word-bridges,” in the solutions of neurotic symptoms.
Footnote EA:
In general it is doubtful in the interpretation of every element of the dream whether it—
(_a_) is to be regarded as having a negative or a positive sense (relation of opposition);
(_b_) is to be interpreted historically (as a reminiscence);
(_c_) is symbolic; or whether
(_d_) its valuation is to be based upon the sound of its verbal expression.
In spite of this manifold signification, it may be said that the representation of the dream activity does not impose upon the translator any greater difficulties than the ancient writers of hieroglyphics imposed upon their readers.
Footnote EB:
For the interpretation of this preliminary dream, which is to be regarded as “casual,” see p. 292.
Footnote EC:
Her career.
Footnote ED:
High birth, the wish contrast to the preliminary dream.
Footnote EE:
A composite image, which unites two localities, the so-called garret (German _Boden_—floor, garret) of her father’s house, in which she played with her brother, the object of her later fancies, and the garden of a malicious uncle, who used to tease her.
Footnote EF:
Wish contrast to an actual memory of her uncle’s garden, to the effect that she used to expose herself while she was asleep.
Footnote EG:
Just as the angel bears a lily stem in the Annunciation.
Footnote EH:
For the explanation of this composite image, see p. 296; innocence, menstruation, Camille.
Footnote EI:
Referring to the plurality of the persons who serve the purpose of her fancy.
Footnote EJ:
Whether it is permitted to “pull one off,” _i.e._ to masturbate.
Footnote EK:
The bough has long since been used to represent the male genital, and besides that it contains a very distinct allusion to the family name of the dreamer.
Footnote EL:
Refers to matrimonial precautions, as does that which follows.
Footnote EM:
An analogous “biographical” dream was reported on p. 252, as the third of the examples of dream symbolism; a second example is the one fully reported by Rank[106] under the title “Traum der sich selbst deutet”; for another one which must be read in the “opposite direction,” see Stekel[114], p. 486.
Footnote EN:
Given by translator as author’s example could not be translated.
Footnote EO: