theory of wishing in dreams, I am indebted, not to
a patient, but to an intelligent jurist of my acquaintance.
“I dream,” my informant tells me,
“that I am walking in front of my house with
a lady on my arm. Here a closed wagon is waiting,
a gentleman steps up to me, gives his authority as
an agent of the police, and demands that I should
follow him. I only ask for time in which to arrange
my affairs. Can you possibly suppose this is a
wish of mine to be arrested?” “Of course
not,” I must admit. “Do you happen
to know upon what charge you were arrested?”
“Yes; I believe for infanticide.”
“Infanticide? But you know that only a
mother can commit this crime upon her newly born child?”
“That is true."[4] “And under what circumstances
did you dream; what happened on the evening before?”
“I would rather not tell you that; it is a delicate
matter.” “But I must have it, otherwise
we must forgo the interpretation of the dream.”
“Well, then, I will tell you. I spent the
night, not at home, but at the house of a lady who
means very much to me. When we awoke in the morning,
something again passed between us. Then I went
to sleep again, and dreamt what I have told you.”
“The woman is married?” “Yes.”
“And you do not wish her to conceive a child?”
“No; that might betray us.” “Then
you do not practice normal coitus?” “I
take the precaution to withdraw before ejaculation.”
“Am I permitted to assume that you did this
trick several times during the night, and that in
the morning you were not quite sure whether you had
succeeded?” “That might be the case.”
“Then your dream is the fulfillment of a wish.
By means of it you secure the assurance that you have
not begotten a child, or, what amounts to the same
thing, that you have killed a child. I can easily
demonstrate the connecting links. Do you remember,
a few days ago we were talking about the distress
of matrimony (Ehenot), and about the inconsistency
of permitting the practice of coitus as long as no
impregnation takes place, while every delinquency after
the ovum and the semen meet and a foetus is formed
is punished as a crime? In connection with this,
we also recalled the mediaeval controversy about the
moment of time at which the soul is really lodged in
the foetus, since the concept of murder becomes admissible
only from that point on. Doubtless you also know
the gruesome poem by Lenau, which puts infanticide
and the prevention of children on the same plane.”
“Strangely enough, I had happened to think of
Lenau during the afternoon.” “Another
echo of your dream. And now I shall demonstrate
to you another subordinate wish-fulfillment in your
dream. You walk in front of your house with the
lady on your arm. So you take her home, instead
of spending the night at her house, as you do in actuality.
The fact that the wish-fulfillment, which is the essence
of the dream, disguises itself in such an unpleasant
form, has perhaps more than one reason. From
my essay on the etiology of anxiety neuroses, you will