The Journal of Abnormal Psychology vol 10

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A man of sixty was brought to my dispensary clinic by his wife (I say
"brought" and not "accompanied" by his wife, advisedly). She accompanied him
into my examining room. He had an almost complete aphonia, spoke hoarsely
and in a whisper and presented all the signs of abductor laryngeal
paralysis; added to which there was a partial hemiplegia of the right side
involving the upper and lower extremities, but not the face or any of the
cranial nerves other than that supplying the right laryngeal abductor. I
shall not give any other points in the history except that this paralysis
was of four months' duration, there was some resistance to movements at the
elbow and knee, but Babinski and other indications of a central organic
lesion were absent. The results of the rest of the physical examination need
not be mentioned except that the patient presented evidences of
arteriosclerosis. The patient was of dull mentality, meek humble and
subservient; he was much below par mentally (I did not put him through any
special intelligence tests), had little information to offer, constantly
resorted to "I don't know" as a reply, and could co-operate but little. I
did, however, obtain the important bit of information that seventeen years
ago he had had an almost complete aphonia of several weeks' duration and
that one day, while on board ship, he became seasick, vomited, became
frightened, went to his room, and suddenly his voice returned to him. So
sudden was the transformation that many of his fellow-passengers insisted
that he had been deceiving them and had purposely simulated the condition he
had previously presented. The case was one of hysteria, the patient
presenting at the time of my examination signs of abductor laryngeal
paralysis (laryngological examination disclosed a right-sided abductor
palsy) and right-sided partial hemiplegia.

For the next two visits the wife accompanied, or rather, brought the patient
to the clinic and I could get but little information and consequently
progressed but little. I asked him, in her presence, to come alone the next
time--which he did. The description of the onset of the attack, which was
furnished me on his previous visits, proved the hysterical nature of the
condition: he had suddenly been attacked by nausea and vomiting, fell to the
floor, lay there, more or less unconscious (as he described it) for five or
ten or more minutes, was assisted to his feet, went to his bed with
practically no assistance, a few hours later found that he could speak
little more than above a whisper, and in another few hours or more his right
side became weak and failed him. He had insisted that the onset came on
suddenly. He had denied any quarrels or trouble at home. Nothing could be
obtained from him as to his thoughts just prior to the attack or as to any
special emotional shocks.

On his fourth visit I asked him to tell me any dream he had had recently and
which had made an impression upon him. He could give me no aid. Nothing
came to mind. I asked him if he had dreamed the night before, and he told
me he had had a dream the afternoon of the preceding day, during an
afternoon nap. Here is the dream: He found himself struggling with a
tremendous snake, the upper part of which was in human form, the features
being very hazy and not at all recalled. The snake was vigorously
endeavoring to enwrap itself about him and to strangle him, and he was
desperately and fiercely struggling to defend himself against it and to free
himself from it--and yet he could not fight it off. In desperation and in
fear he cried aloud for help. This was the end of the dream, for, at this
point, members of his family came rushing toward him to inquire what was
wrong with him, and due partly to shock and his own activity in the dream,
and partly perhaps to the noise of the footsteps and of the conversation of
those who came running toward him to inquire into the cause of his
distressful cries, he awoke.

The thoughts and reveries just preceding the dream and the thoughts and
experiences during the morning preceding the dream, although the true
inciters of the dream, and although concerned with the central figure (his
wife) in this little drama, need not be detailed since the dream has a wider
and more deeply arising significance.

I could not learn definitely from him whether the series of associated
thoughts turned first from his wife to his troubles with her, to her
attitude toward him, and then to her resemblance in this respect (her
nagging, pestering persistence and actual persecution of him) to a snake
which is endeavoring to enwrap itself about him, to strangle him, to
withdraw from him his very life's blood, etc. This may or may not have been
the line of associations just preceding the dream.

He had no idea as to what the dream meant. Using free association, in
ordinary face-to-face conversation, I asked him what "snake" reminded him
of. The association came in a moment. He smiled, became embarrassed, said
it was foolish of him to tell me this, but it reminded him of his wife. He
had always looked upon his wife as a snake in human form. He had frequently
called her "snake" because of her conduct toward him. She had wound herself
about his life in snake-like fashion.

And then came the story of their troubles. This was his second wife. She
was fifteen years his junior. He was meek, feeble, of weak will-power,
without initiative. She was domineering. Although his wife never told him
so openly and in so many words, he felt convinced that the trouble had begun
more or less because his wife's sexual libido was not satisfied in her
sexual relations with him. He admits that she is a passionate woman, her
sexual libido was of such strength that he, much older than she, and not too
strong physically, could but little gratify her. The first complaints and
the sole trouble which appeared on the surface were financial--he barely
made a living and she complained thereat continually, bitterly and
tyrannically. It seems that her complaint in this direction was justified.
It is difficult to determine just what role her lack of sexual gratification
played-- whether it only acted as stirring up the embers of dissatisfaction
(with his weekly earnings) which already existed, or whether it was the
basic factor, led to her dissatisfaction with her matrimonial choice, and
caused her to seek some more or less valid cause for complaint, in that way
permitting her, more or less consciously, to transfer her dissatisfaction
and discontent from the lack of sexual gratification to the hard pressed
financial condition (which perhaps she might, for that matter, have been
willing to endure, did she but obtain the full gratification of her sexual
craving). At any rate, both of these factors played their role in causing
domestic disagreement, one factor being openly acknowledged as the cause by
his wife, the other factor never mentioned by her, but believed by him to be
an important accessory, if not the main, fundamental and primary source of
the trouble. His wife, using his poor earning capacity as a weapon, and with
the demand for "more money" as her battle-cry, carried on a campaign of
complaint, grumbling, nagging, fault-finding, insult and abuse, but little
short of persecution, making conditions wretched and miserable at home.
Things at length became quite unbearable to him--so much so that, feeble in
willpower and lacking in initiative as he was and is, he was compelled to
leave home and live with his aunt, since his wife had practically deserted
him. Although she had sold out the furniture and the rest of the
furnishings of the home, and had pocketed the money thus received, she
repeatedly called at his aunt's home for no other purpose than to force him
to pay her sums of money for her weekly maintenance. On each such visit she
would act the tyrant, would storm and rage furiously, would subject him to
stinging rebukes and deliver biting tongue-lashings, causing him in
consequence to be much upset and nervous the rest of the day. The very
morning on which he had had the attack, which was followed by his present
trouble (partial aphonia and partial hemiplegia) his wife had paid him one
of these unusually stormy and noisy, and, to say the least, unwelcome
visits. She had carried the attack to such a point that our patient became
so emotionally upset (he is a harmless, emotional, kindly, unassuming and
indifferent sort of old fellow) that he suddenly was attacked with nausea
and vomiting, and, frightened, fell to the floor, with the consequences
above detailed. I need not go further into the history and analysis of this
case, but the story thus far elicited is more than sufficient to show that
here we have a specific instance in which, by the analysis of a single
dream, we have arrived at the genesis of an hysterical paralytic syndrome of
four months' duration. The analysis took but a few minutes. It may be
mentioned, in parentheses, that a full knowledge of the cause of the
condition did not lead to a disappearance of the palsy. In other words, as
we all know, knowledge per se does not lead to action or to the assertion or
development of the will-power. I may say, also, that the events here related
were not suppressed or repressed, for, as soon as the question of his wife
was taken up, the patient admitted that it was she who was the real cause of
his present conditions, and he thereupon detailed the story above related.
He assured me that he had always been fully aware that it was she who had
brought about his present condition, although, of course, he did not know
whether he had had an hysterical, apoplectic or other sort of attack. In
fact he believed his condition was permanent and incurable-- especially
since he had been treated at various neurological clinics for many weeks
past without the slightest improvement or progress.

Were we to follow up this history we could unearth the full life history of
this patient, including the genesis of his early attack of aphonia. But I
deem this unnecessary and inadvisable in this paper, as mentioned
previously.

Here, then, we have a definite case in which by the analysis of a single and
incidentally the first dream we have arrived at the genesis of the
psychoneurotic disorder.

From this same standpoint I have studied another case, a married woman of
twenty-nine, with marked neurasthenic and hysterical symptoms (including
astasia-abasia, anesthesias, palpitation of the heart, throbbing sensations
in the stomach and a great many other symptoms). This case I studied for
upwards of four months, with almost daily visits to the hospital where she
was being cared for. I made quite an intensive study of her dream life and
of her past life history, and I find that had I taken the very first dream
which I obtained from her and conducted a thorough analysis with this dream
as my first mile-post, I would have arrived at a full genesis of the
condition, which was of ten years' duration. In this case, also, I must
repeat, there was no indication of repression, the patient having always
understood very well the origin and cause of her condition. Here, too, we
find that the knowledge alone did not lead to her recovery. This case I
shall report in detail at a later date.

In this connection, I cannot keep from reciting the dream of a young girl of
twelve which I had the good fortune to study. She came to me complaining
about her throat. There was something dry, "a sticking" in her throat. She
did not know what it was. Would I look at her throat? I found nothing
abnormal, and was about to dismiss her when I observed that her hands were
bluish. I felt them. They were cold. I thought at once of probable heart
disease. I was soon informed that she had heart disease. She had been told
so by other doctors. This proved to be the case, as I learned on examining
her.

Being keenly interested in this subject of dreams, I wondered whether, if
she were subject to periods of cardiac decompensation of varying degree, she
did not have dreams of a terrifying nature (about burglars, robbery and the
like), because of embarrassment of breathing during sleep, resulting from
her cardiac insufficiency and consequent circulatory and respiratory
disturbance. I asked her whether she had been dreaming much of late. She
told me she had had a dream the preceding night. What was it? I inquired.

She had dreamed that she had died. Her mother had put her in a coffin,
carried her to the cemetery and then proceeded to bury her. Her mother had
first forced something into her mouth (it seemed to be a whitish powder),
and then lowered her into the grave and filled the grave with dirt. That is
all that she could remember.

I shall not enter into a complete analysis or interpretation of this dream.
There is no doubt, however, to every psychoanalyst who has devoted his
attention to dreams, that the analysis of such a dream should prove most
interesting. It is also apparent that by taking up the various elements of
the dream and following them untiringly along the various trails and
ramifications which lead on in various directions, one could unmask the
entire life history of this twelve-year-old girl.

I wish, however, to direct the reader's attention to only one aspect of this
dream--the death of the dreamer. She denied that she feared death or that
she thought of death because of her heart disease or from any other cause. I
next inquired: "Do you wish or have you ever wished you were dead?" The
reaction of the girl was immediate and intense. She stood frightened,
embarrassed; her eyelids twitched convulsively in rapid succession, her face
gradually assumed a suppressed crying expression, tears came to her eyes,
they soon flowed freely and rolled down her cheeks; she sobbed, and, through
her tears, she uttered, almost inarticulately, the one word, "Yes." A
convulsive, inspiratory grunt, a bashful, receding, turning away of the head
and body, a raising of the hands to cover her face and hide her tears, and
hasty, running steps to get away, while murmuring audibly "Let me go away,"
followed rapidly one upon the other. I gently seized her hand, calmed and
reassured her. And, through sobs and tears, in almost inaudible tones, in
starts and spurts, and reluctantly replying to questions which were forced
upon her, producing replies which were literally drawn from her against her
will, she told me this little story: A little boy cousin of hers, three
years her junior, had begun school two years or so later than she, and yet,
in spite of this handicap, this little relative had outstripped her in
school, he being now in a higher grade than she herself was. She would not
be so much concerned or worried about this not-to-be-proud-of performance,
had not the boy's mother that week visited her home and there, in the
presence of other people, talked considerably about her boy's progress in
school, his rapid advance as compared with that of our little dreamer, her
relative stupidity and backwardness. And so this boy's mother had continued
for some time in the same strain. This caused our little girl to feel much
embarrassed--in fact, ashamed and mortified. She had felt that way for
several days past, it had made her cry, had made her feel miserable and
unhappy; so much so that she had wished she were dead. I shall not continue
this analysis further. But it is plainly seen that here too, by a single
dream, we have come upon life-experiences, viewpoints and mental material
which affords us efficient and sufficient weapons to boldly attack the
fortress of her full life history, her mental qualities, her trends, her
psychic depth, her mental makeup in its entirety, in its every dimension.

It is interesting to note that on the morning following the experience which
I had with this child, she came to see me a second time, and, on my
examining her throat, it presented the typical picture of bilateral
tonsillitis, the final result of the initial sticking sensation in her
throat, which she had experienced the day before. After taking a culture
from her throat as a matter of routine to exclude a possible diphtheria, the
patient, greatly disturbed because of her newly-discovered trouble, burst
forth into bitter tears, and, still sobbing, rushed abruptly from the room.

A week later, when I saw her again, she had regained her emotional
equilibrium and we reviewed her dream and its analysis without any special
signs of emotional disturbance.

Very interesting, also, was my experience about a week following this when,
casually reciting this little girl's dream, its significance and her
conduct, to an old lady whom I know very well, I found that she too was
presenting all the signs of emotional upset, for, as I proceeded with my
recital, tears gradually came to her eyes, her face assumed a suppressed
crying expression, she tried to smile through her tears, and finally, unable
to control her emotions, she broke out into a free and unrestrained weeping
spell, following which I learned from her that the recital of this girl's
condition, her dream and its meaning, recalled to her mind her darling
daughter, a noble girl of sixteen years of age, who had died some fifteen
years ago, after a long period of incapacitation and a miserable existence
brought on by tonsillitis, chorea, rheumatism and, finally, heart disease,
with all the extreme signs and symptoms of broken cardiac and renal
compensation. Here, then, I had touched another complex, which, if followed
up, would lead me into the innermost depths and recesses of this old lady's
soul-life, into the holiest of holies of her mental life.

The writer will be pardoned for not here giving fuller histories, or for not
carrying out the analyses to their ultimate goals, or for not giving the
interpretations of the two dreams presented. That was not the primary object
of this communication.

I wish, in conclusion, to repeat that through the conscientious and most
far-reaching analysis of a single dream, or, in fact, of a single element of
a dream or a single element or stimulus in the objective or subjective
world, one may, at least not infrequently, unearth the full life history of
normal or abnormal individuals, and the genesis and evolution of
psychopathic affections.

The reader may justly inquire why the analyst should resort to dream
analysis instead of taking the history of the case in the usual way. In all
cases the patient should be permitted to tell her story in her own way.
This method of procedure, with cross questioning, may and should indeed be
sufficient to unravel the case for us in most cases. But if we find that we
have not gained the confidence of the patient and have not that condition of
being en rapport with the patient which is essential for progress and
success in the analysis, one may resort to dream analysis, not so much for
the purpose of following the royal road to what the Freudian school calls
"the unconscious," but rather with the object of obtaining the confidence of
the patient and of having something definite to start with.

AN ACT OF EVERYDAY LIFE TREATED AS A PRETENDED DREAM AND INTERPRETED BY
PSYCHOANALYSIS

BY RAYMOND BELLAMY

Professor of Education, Emory and Henry College, Emory, Va.

A RECENT article by Brill, entitled "Artificial Dreams and Lying,"[1]
recalled to me a little work I did two years ago while engaged in making an
introductory study of dreams as a thesis at Clark University. The part
which is hereby submitted is a fragment of a larger work and, being only a
sort of side issue, was never included in the thesis proper. I have made
only such changes as were made necessary by the fact that this is a fragment
and needed one or two minor changes to make it complete.

[1] Journal Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 9, No. 5.

Let me say at the beginning that I have the greatest and most profound
respect for Freudian theories as interpreted by G. Stanley Hall and other
men of like scholarly ability, but I have never been able to accept the more
extreme form of Freudianism as interpreted by some of the most prolific
writers in this field. I have found that the charges made by Habermann[2]
are substantially true. I find it very helpful indeed, to try to interpret
my own dreams and to assist some of my students to do so according to the
Freudian formula, and to a certain point I believe these interpretations are
undoubtedly true. The question is to find the point beyond which the
interpretation becomes artificial. Personally, I believe that this will
always have to be decided finally by the individual himself rather than by
some outsider who insists on reading in a certain interpretation. I have
come to believe that it is possible for one to become trained to the point
at which he is able to decide just how far the interpretation goes, or, at
least, to approximate it.

[2] Journal Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 9, No. 4.

With these few introductory remarks I shall submit the paper, which was
written in 1912. I have not appended the rather long and cumbersome
bibliography from which I drew these references, but I can supply any
reference that is wanted.

If we examine the Freudian system, we find that it is impossible to disprove
this theory of dreams. If we demonstrate that a dream has no sexual
connection whatever, they have only to say that it is the censor that
blinds, and, by resorting to symbolism and other such very present helps in
time of trouble, they show plainly that we were mistaken. The situation is
the same as it would be if I declared that what I saw as blue appeared
yellow to the rest of the world. The disproof of this and of Freudianism are
equally impossible. But, on the other hand, have the Freudians presented any
proof or argument on the affirmative side of this question? They are over
fond of saying, "Freud has proven thus and so," but in what did the proof
consist? The great answer to all objections has been to analyze dreams and,
so far as I know, the attempt has never failed to show that the dream in
question conformed to the prescribed requirements. And in truth, it is not
a difficult matter to analyze a dream a la Freud. After a little practice,
especially if one has a vivid imagination and is somewhat suggestible, It is
possible to find the repressed sexual wish in every dream. But if we use
such flexible and wonderful factors as the four mechanisms, and, above all,
symbolism, we can find the same things in any other experience. By this I
mean that if we take a bit out of our daily life, a dream of some one else,
a fictitious story, an historical incident, or any other pictured situation
and PRETEND THAT IT IS ONE OF OUR OWN DREAMS and apply the Freudian
analysis, we find that it serves for this purpose as well as a real dream.
When this is the case, it is absurd to put any faith in the analysis of real
dreams, when carried to extremes.

As an illustration of the above statement, the following is a fairly typical
example. The supposed "dream" is a commonplace bit out of my daily life.
This is chosen at random (although Jones would say such a thing is
impossible) and subjected to a dream analysis.

ANALYSIS OF FALSE DREAM

Dream. I was walking along a street on a cold winter night. I looked down
at the cement walk and in this was set a piece of granite on which the
letters "W. H." were cut. Coming to the corner, I looked up and saw on a
short board which was nailed to a post, the name of the street, "Queen
Street," The street running at right angles to this was King Street, and I
turned and went down this. After walking a short distance, I came to a house
from a window of which a light was shining. The house number was "23." I
took a key from my pocket, unlocked the door and entered.

Analysis. In attempting to analyze this (so-called) dream, I was amazed to
find with how many past longings and emotionally-colored experiences it was
associated. I first took up the letters on the sidewalk, and as I repeated
them, letting my mind be as blank as possible in order that the associations
might be free, I gained an immediate response. "W. H."--"Which House"--came
out as in answer to a question. With these words there was a definite visual
image of a young country farm youth standing talking to two persons in a
buggy. I remembered the incident in all its details. I was the young man and
these people were asking the way to a certain place, or at WHICH HOUSE they
should stop. As it so happened, I was at that time keeping company with a
young lady who lived at the very house concerning which they asked. I will
not go into detail any further at this point, for this is a real case and I
should be trespassing on personal ground. But any one who yet remembers his
boyhood courtship, with all its agonies and fears, its hopes and joys, its
disappointments and its pleasures, can see at a glance how important this
occasion is in throwing light on the meaning of the dream. Of course "W. H."
stood for "Which House."

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