The Interpretation of Dreams Sigmund Freud (1900)

"Nor it is." He himself must be this student; he is as indifferent to his analysis as the student is to his synthesis; the he in the dream, however, who
performs the operation, is myself. How unpleasant he must seem to me with his indifference to the result!
Again, he is the material with which the analysis (synthesis) is made. For the question is the success of the treatment. The legs in the dream recall
an impression of the previous evening. He met a lady at a dancing class of whom he wished to make a conquest; he pressed her to him so closely
that she once cried out. As he ceased to press her legs he felt her firm, responding pressure against his lower thighs as far as just above the knees,
the spot mentioned in the dream. In this situation, then, the woman is the magnesium in the retort, which is at last working. He is feminine
towards me, as he is virile towards the woman. If he succeeds with the woman, the treatment will also succeed. Feeling himself and becoming
aware of his knees refers to masturbation, and corresponds to his fatigue of the previous day... The rendezvous had actually been made for halfpast
eleven. His wish to oversleep himself and to keep to his sexual object at home (that is, masturbation) corresponds to his resistance.
He says, in respect to the repetition of the name phenyl, that all these radicals ending in yl have always been pleasing to him; they are very
convenient to use: benzyl, acetyl, etc. That, however, explained nothing. But when I proposed the root Schlemihl he laughed heartily, and told me
that during the summer he had read a book by Prevost which contained a chapter: "Les exclus de l'amour," and in this there was some mention of
Schlemilies; and in reading of these outcasts he said to himself: "That is my case." He would have played the Schlemihl if he had missed the
appointment.
It seems that the sexual symbolism of dreams has already been directly confirmed by experiment. In 1912 Dr. K. Schrotter, at the instance of H.
Swoboda, produced dreams in deeply hypnotized persons by suggestions which determined a large part of the dream-content. If the suggestion
proposed that the subject should dream of normal or abnormal sexual relations, the dream carried out these orders by replacing sexual material by
the symbols with which psycho-analytic dream-interpretation has made us familiar. Thus, following the suggestion that the dreamer should dream
of homosexual relations with a lady friend, this friend appeared in the dream carrying a shabby travelling-bag, upon which there was a label with
the printed words: "For ladies only." The dreamer was believed never to have heard of dream-symbolization or of dream-interpretation.
Unfortunately, the value of this important investigation was diminished by the fact that Dr. Schrotter shortly afterwards committed suicide. Of his
dream-experiments be gave us only a preliminary report in the Zentralblatt fur Psychoanalyse.
Only when we have formed a due estimate of the importance of symbolism in dreams can we continue the study of the typical dreams which was
interrupted in an earlier chapter. I feel justified in dividing these dreams roughly into two classes; first, those which always really have the same
meaning, and second, those which despite the same or a similar content must nevertheless be given the most varied interpretations. Of the typical
dreams belonging to the first class I have already dealt fairly fully with the examination-dream.
On account of their similar affective character, the dreams of missing a train deserve to be ranked with the examination-dreams; moreover, their
interpretation justifies this approximation. They are consolation-dreams, directed against another anxiety perceived in dreams - the fear of death.
To depart is one of the most frequent and one of the most readily established of the death-symbols. The dream therefore says consolingly:
"Reassure yourself, you are not going to die (to depart)," just as the examination-dream calms us by saying: "Don't be afraid; this time, too,
nothing will happen to you." The difficulty is understanding both kinds of dreams is due to the fact that the anxiety is attached precisely to the
expression of consolation.
The meaning of the dreams due to dental stimulus which I have often enough had to analyse in my patients escaped me for a long time because,
much to my astonishment, they habitually offered too great a resistance to interpretation. But finally an overwhelming mass of evidence
convinced me that in the case of men nothing other than the masturbatory desires of puberty furnish the motive power of these dreams. I shall
analyse two such dreams, one of which is also a flying dream. The two dreams were dreamed by the same person - a young man of pronounced
homosexuality which, however, has been inhibited in life.
He is witnessing a performance of Fidelio from the stalls the of the operahouse; sitting next to L, whose personality is congenial to him, and
whose friendship he would like to have. Suddenly he flies diagonally right across the stalls; he then puts his hand in his mouth and draws out two
of his teeth.
He himself describes the flight by saying that it was as though he were thrown into the air. As the opera performed was Fidelio, he recalls the
words: -
He who a charming wife acquires.... -
But the acquisition of even the most charming wife is not among the wishes of the dreamer. Two other lines would be more appropriate: -
He who succeeds in the lucky (big) throw
The friend of a friend to be.... -