a-general-introduction-to-psychoanalysis-sigmund-freud

people are gone and he sees a ghostly man with a cap, and clad in white. He
asks this man whether he is the telegraph messenger.... No. Or is he a
coachman? No. Then he goes on," and even in the dream he is in great fear.
After waking he continues the dream by a phantasy in which the iron bridge
suddenly breaks, and he plunges into the abyss.
When the dreamer emphasizes the fact that certain individuals in a dream are
unknown, that he has forgotten their names, they are generally persons
standing in very close relationship to the dreamer. This dreamer has two
sisters; if it be true, as his dream indicates, that he wished these two dead,
then it would only be justice if the fear of death fell upon him for so doing. In
connection with the telegraph messenger he remarks that such people always
bring bad news. Judged by his uniform he might also have been the lamplighter,
who, however, also extinguishes the lamps—in other words, as the
spirit of death extinguishes the flame of life. The coachman reminds him of
Uhland's poem of King Karl's ocean voyage and also of a dangerous lake trip
with two companions in which he played the role of the king in the poem. In
connection with the iron bridge he remembers a recent accident and the
stupid saying "Life is a suspension bridge."
11. The following may serve as another example of the representation of
death in a dream: "An unknown man leaves a black bordered visiting card for
him."
12. The following dream will interest you for several reasons, though it is one
arising from a neurotic condition among other things:
"He is traveling in a train. The train stops in an open field. He thinks it means
that there is going to be an accident, that he must save himself, and he goes
through all the compartments of the train and strikes dead everyone whom he
meets, conductors, engine drivers, etc."
In connection with this he tells a story that one of his friends told him. An
insane man was being transported in a private compartment in a certain place
in Italy, but through some mistake another traveler was put in the same
compartment. The insane man murdered his fellow passenger. Thus he
identifies himself with this insane person and bases his right so to do upon a
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