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

clothing, where they certainly do not belong, as for example between the
double soles of their boots. If the concealed objects are found in such a place,
they certainly are very far-fetched, but nevertheless they have been
"fetched."
If we recognize that the most remote, the most extraordinary associations
between the latent dream element and its manifest substitute are possible,
associations appearing ofttimes comical, ofttimes witty, we follow in so doing
a wealth of experience derived from examples whose solutions we have, as a
rule, not found ourselves. Often it is not possible to give such interpretations
from our own examples. No sane person could guess the requisite
association. The dreamer either gives us the translation with one stroke by
means of his immediate association—he can do this, for this substitute
formation was created by his mind—or he provides us with so much material
that the solution no longer demands any special astuteness but forces itself
upon us as inevitable. If the dreamer does not help us in either of these two
ways, then indeed the manifest element in question remains forever
incomprehensible to us. Allow me to give you one more such example of
recent occurrence. One of my patients lost her father during the time that she
was undergoing treatment. Since then she has made use of every opportunity
to bring him back to life in her dreams. In one of her dreams her father
appears in a certain connection, of no further importance here, and says, "It
is a quarter past eleven, it is half past eleven, it is quarter of twelve." All she
can think of in connection with this curious incident is the recollection that her
father liked to see his grown-up children appear punctually at the general
meal hour. That very thing probably had some connection with the dream
element, but permitted of no conclusion as to its source. Judging from the
situation of the treatment at that time, there was a justified suspicion that a
carefully suppressed critical rebellion against her loved and respected father
played its part in this dream. Continuing her associations, and apparently far
afield from topics relevant to the dream, the dreamer relates that yesterday
many things of a psychological nature had been discussed in her presence,
and that a relative made the remark: "The cave man (Urmensch) continues to
live in all of us." Now we think we understand. That gave her an excellent
opportunity of picturing her father as continuing to live. So in the dream she
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