Dreams and Myths A Study in Race Psychology

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Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph No.

Series,

15

DREAMS AND MYTHS A Study

Race Psychology

in

BY

DR. KARL

ABRAHAM

Berlin

Translated by

WILLIAM

A.

WHITE, M.D.

Washington

NEW YORK THE JOURNAL OF NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASE PUBLISHING COMPANY 19*3

Reprinted with the permission

of the Original Publisher

LTD. JOHNSON REPRINT CORPORATION JOHNSON REPRINT COMPANY Fifth Avenue, New York, NY'. 10003 Berkeley Square House, London. W1X6BA 1

1

1

First reprinting 1970,

Johnson Reprint Corporation

Printed in the United States of America

Copyright,

1

913, by

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Company, New York

AUTHOR'S FOREWORD TO THE AMERICAN EDITION Three years have elapsed since the appearance of the German In the meantime the interest in psychoanalytic researches edition. has everywhere grown, more especially in the United States of

North America.

work has

in

So

the need for an English translation of this

arisen.

The author can only say that the views that he has presented this work have experienced complete confirmation through the

more recent

investigations.

Dr. Karl Abraham. Berlin, September, 1912.

ill

CONTENTS I.

Object and Viewpoint of Psychoanalytic Investigations

II.

According to Freud

Childhood Phantasies cation of the

III.

Symbolism

in

Dreams and Myths.

I

Appli-

Wish Theory to Myths Dreams and Other Phantasies

in Speech, in

IV. Analysis of the Prometheus Saga

V. Infantilism

The

Effect of the Censor

Work

2.7

and Folk Psychology, WishDream and Myth

in Individual

fulfillment in

VI.

4 12

in

Dreams and Myths.

32

The

of Condensation

43

VII. Displacement and Secondary Elaboration in Dreams

and Myths VIII.

The

46

Effect of Displacement in the Sagas of theus, Moses,

Prome-

and Samson

IX. The Means of Representation of the Myth

X. Wish-fulfillment XI. Analysis of the

in the

Myth

Prometheus Saga

of the Origin of Nectar

XII. The Wish Theory of the

Myth

49 55

58

63

69

XIII. The Determining Forces in the Psychic Life of the Individual and the Race

73

DREAMS AND MYTHS.*

Object and Viewpoint of Psychoanalytic Investigations According to Freud

The

psychological theories that are associated with the

of S. Freud

name

reach out into regions of the psychic life of

man,

which, from outer appearances, have no relation to one another.

Freud

in

(1895)

The

common started

with J. Breuer in their "Studien uber Hysterie"

out

from pathological psychic manifestations. method required

progressive elaboration of the psychoanalytic

a searching study of dreams. 1

It

appeared also that for a

full

understanding of these phenomena the comparative consideration of certain other phenomena must be taken up. Freud saw this and drew wider and wider areas of the normal and diseased psy-

So there appeared

chic life into the field of his investigations. in the

Sammlung

kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre (1906) an

assortment of studies of hysteria, compulsive ideas, and other psychic disturbances, later the monographs "tJber den Witz" "2 " (1905), and Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie (1905), the lately the psychological analysis of a poet's

tutes the first

volume of

this series.

works,

Freud came

2a

which consti-

to consider these

apparently heterogeneous products of man's psyche from a com-

mon

viewpoint.

They

all

have

in

common

the relation to the

and to the sexuality; represent a wish of the indi-

unconscious, to the psychic life of childhood,

they have in *

common

the tendency to

Traum und Mythus. Eine

Studie zur Volkerpsychologie. Schriften Leipzig und Wien. Franz Deuticke 1909. "Die Traumdeutung." Wien und Leipzig, 1900 (2 Aufl. 1909). 2 An English translation of this work by Dr. A. A. Brill is No. 7 of

zur angewandten Seelenkunde. 1

this Series. 14 "

Der Wahn und

Leipzig, 1907.

die

Traume

in

W.

'

Jensens'

Gradiva.'

"

Wien und

2

DREAMS AND MYTHS

vidual as fulfilled; in

common

tion,

which serve

He who

is

are the means of this representa-

this end.

not acquainted with Freud's writings and those of

his followers, will be astonished that

place

one should earnestly seek to same view-

these expressions near one another under the

all

He will ask what sort of relations wit has to the unconHe will doubt that a disease can contain a wish- fulfillment

point.

scious.

for the patient who suffers from it and he will not quite comprehend how one can place poetry parallel in this respect. He will not understand what general relations are supposed to prevail be-

tween the dreams of adults and the psyche of the child. He will, and this perhaps most, be opposed to the idea that one can ascribe

phenomena relations to sexuality. And down by Freud appear to be full of contra-

to all these psychological

so the teachings laid

and absurdities

dictions

;

they appear as isolated statements with-

out critique to generalize. reject,

Consequently one will be inclined to

a limine, the methods of investigation, with the help of

3 which, results like these are obtained.

If I I

were

to attempt here an

answer

to the different objections

could not avoid a detailed presentation of

ings this

all

of Freud's teach-

and would be obliged to considerably overstep the limits of Opportunity will offer, in the course of our inquiry,

work.

to touch

upon the most important problems to which Freud has In the meantime suffice a reference: All of

devoted his work. the psychic

phenomena which we above place

products of phantasy.

We

will

side

by side are the

not assume, without

further

demonstration, that as such they present certain analogies

among

themselves.

There

are, besides the

products of individual phantasy, also

those that cannot be ascribed to such phantasy.

I

am

satisfied

'This is about the standpoint taken by the medical profession to Freud's teachings. It must be confessed that Freud's teachings must at first appear strange to the unprejudiced. It should be emphasized that a wide cleft separates them from traditional psychology. That should be no ground, however, for dismissing them with a shrug of the shoulders or a few witty catch words, as happens on the side of the critics.

OBJECT AND VIEWPOINT

3

mention myths and legends as structures of such do not know who created them, who first related

at this place to

a kind.

them.

We

In the sagas and legends folk phantasy finds expression.

Freud has already made them, to a certain degree, the objects of his inquiries, and in numerous respects disclosed psychological analogies between

them and the

results of individual phantasy.

Recently another author has followed

examined

in his tracks.

Riklin 4 has

into the psychological analogies of the legends of dif-

ferent peoples.

The proposed work

is

an attempt to compare

myths with the phenomena of individual psychology, especially It will bring out the proof that Freud's teachings, wide sense, can be transferred to the psychology of myths,

with dreams. in a

and are even qualified to furnish wholly new grounds for the 5 understanding of the sagas.

"

4 work of Riklin: The announced Wunscherfiillung und Symbolik " im Marchen (Vol. 2 of this series) appeared after my work was finished. I could, therefore, only make use of a short preliminary communication of

(Psychiatr.-n enrol. Wochenschrift, 1907, Nr. 22-24.) "Likewise after the conclusion of this projected work an article of Freud appeared (" Der Dichter und das Phantasieren," Nene Revue, 2. Marzheft, 1908), which expressed in brief, the fundamental idea of my work. (" Es ist von den Mythen durchaus wahrscheinlich, dass sie den entstellten Uberresten von Wunschphantasien ganzer Nationen, den Sakulartraiimen der jungen Menscheit entsprechen.")

the author.

II

Childhood Phantasies in Dreams and Myths. of the Wish Theory to Myths I will anticipate at

Application

once some of the principal evident objec-

tions to this undertaking as planned.

It will

be objected that

myths spring from phantasies which operate during the waking to a condition of state, while dreams owe their origin to sleep and Careful consideration shows, however,

lowered consciousness. that this in

dream these

no way constitutes an important

We

difference.

not only during sleep; there are also waking dreams.

we

transfer ourselves into an artificial situation and

the world and

our future according to our wishes.

In

form

That the same

tendency dwells in night dreams will very soon be accepted by us. Many people tend, in a surprising degree, to day dreaming;

one sees them thus absorbed.

Imperceptible gradations

over here to a pathological activity of phantasy.

lead

Children give

themselves to such dream-like phantasies very readily.

The

little

king of a great realm and conquers in boy, in his day dream, bloody battles; or he distinguishes himself as an Indian chief or is

in

some other manner.

Pathological grades of absorption in day

dreams are not rare among children. We already see from this that there is no sharp dividing line between waking phantasies and dreams. We know further, however, from Freud's re-

dream thoughts do not arise during the dream but are representations from previous waking periods. In the dream they only maintain a form, which differs from that in which searches, that the

we commonly

care to express our thoughts.

Another objection, which likewise only has an apparent ity,

concerns

itself

valid-

with the fashioning of the point of departure

for our further consideration.

It will 4

be shown that the dream

CHILDHOOD PHANTASIES IN DREAMS AND MYTHS is

an individual product, while in myths there

the collective spirit

of a people.

One

5

stored, in a way,

is

finds the

comparison indreams originate from the emotions of individuals so there are emotions which are comvalid.

This error

mon "

to mankind. " dreams. typical

group of dreams

is

easy to refute.

If

These express themselves in what Freud Freud has succeeded in tracing back

to certain wishes

common

to

time to point out that these same wishes certain myths.

men,

all

at the

lie

at the

to us for our purposes, to take

Still it

this

same

bottom of

Freud's deductions regarding typical dreams

thus serve as a basis for our researches.

calls

commends

may itself

up the analysis of the typical

dreams as a starting point. They give us opportunity to gate the wish theory of dreams. Besides they offer, as

investiwill be

shown, in certain respects, simpler situations than most other dreams."

According to the theory of Freud there lies, at the bottom of every dream, a repressed wish in the unconscious. Every one experiences occurrences which he afterwards can never recall

without a lively feeling of pain. cences out of his consciousness.

guish them from unconscious.

He seeks to force such reminisHe is not able fully to extin-

he can only repress them into the The repressed memories and the wishes associated

memory

;

with them are only apparently forgotten; that

So

is

to say they are

withdrawn from spontaneous

recall.

function of consciousness

any way impaired, when phantasy

is in

soon, however, as the

takes the place of logically ordered thought, as

is

the case in day

dreaming, the dream, and under the most varied pathological uations, then the repressed psychic material

becomes again

sit-

free.

In dreams, and in the symptoms of certain psychic disturbances, the repressed wishes 8

A

come again

to expression.

Their formerly

further, apparently very substantial objection against the conceived relationship of dreams and myths arises from the gradual rise of myths through many generations, while the dream appears to be a transitory, short-lived structure. This objection will find its refutation in the course of our investigations.

DREAMS AND MYTHS

6

hoped for, but delayed fulfilling is represented now in phantasy. That an important part of the repressed wishes spring from the period of childhood to

which we must

to keep in

mind

is

later

one of the

come

back.

that according to

by Freud and For the present it is sufficient Freud's view the dream reprefacts established

sents the fulfillment of a repressed wish

of this wish

Freud

the childhood of the dreamer.

lie in

especially emphasizes

that the typical

scended from infantile reminiscences. this respect, are those

at

contradict his view that every

Probably every one

and that

is

de-

Especially instructive, in

who

first

glance appear absolutely to

dream contains a wish

fulfillment.

has at some time dreamt of the death

whom

he loved, will energetically assume the one assumes that he wished the death of his relative

of a near relative defensive

dream

dreams which deal with the death of near

These dreams

relatives.

and that the deepest roots

if

this secret

wish came to expression

in the

dream.

He

emphasize that the dream was accompanied by the most painful feelings of anxiety and fright and so perhaps brought to expression an apprehension but certainly not a wish. will also

The theory

in

stress with great

no way refers only

to actual wishes but lays

emphasis upon the significance of early infantile dreams of the death of a dear relative it is not

If one

emotions.

at all necessary, according to Freud's teachings, to

clusion that the dreamer

have had

it

at

now

some, perhaps remote time.

draw the con-

;

he needs only to

To

be sure one will

has such a wish

not easily acknowledge this either.

The tions,

up to a certain age that shows considerable variafrom altruistic feelings. He lives in a naive egoism.

child,

free

throughout erroneous to assume that the feeling of the child

It is

for

is

its

parents and brothers and sisters

feeling of affection.

On

who had been an

from the beginning a

the contrary there exists instead

the children a certain rivalry. first,

is

When

a second child

is

among

born the

only child up to that time, clearly shows

CHILDHOOD PHANTASIES IN DREAMS AND MYTHS

7

jealousy on account of the attention paid to It is quite

lessness.

it because of its helpusual that a child will not give the bottle of

milk to the younger, that the its

newcomer

own

sitting

when

it

its

its

It envies

place.

superiority

on

is

jealousy

stirred

up when

it

sees

mother's lap, which was formerly only its

it

playthings,

it

emphasizes

its

speaks of the younger one to adults.

own The

younger child reacts, as soon as it is in a position to, in just such an egoistic manner. It sees in the elder an oppressor and seeks to help itself as well as

its

weakness makes possible.

Under

normal conditions these contrasts gradually disappear to a great extent. They are never wholly rooted out in spite of all educational

measures

This hostile attitude of one child toward the other finds expression in the

wish that the other were dead.

will be disputed that a child

dead.

"

child of

bad

"

Naturally

it

as to wish the other

Who '

(Freud). It

can be so

"

its

says that does not consider that the idea of the " death has little in common with ours except the word '

The

child has

hears perhaps that this

the child that only

means

experience teaches us

no clear idea of the death of a person. or that relative has died, is dead. For that person

:

how

is

no longer

there.

Daily

easily the child gets over the absence

perhaps stretches the hand forth in the direction in which the mother has gone, it cries a little while

of a loved person.

It

then consoles

with games or food and no longer recalls

itself

—

Older children of normal psychic

spontaneously the going away.

constitution also get over a separation easily. child identifies death with absence.

that anyone, of

We

return.

whose death

understand

it

It

In early years the

cannot represent to

now how

a child in

all

harmlessness

wishes the death of the other (or any other person). rivalry

:

were

it

not

so,

itself

has been told, will never again

It is its

then the occasion for rivalry and jealousy

would be removed.

Between brothers and

sisters this

relationship of rivalry

is

DREAMS AND MYTHS

8

milder than between children of the same sex, moderated by the will have to consider this point later. sexual attraction.

We

New

opposition arises

child to the parents

when we

consider the relation of the

from the above viewpoint.

How

can one

assume that the child wishes the death of the father or the mother?

One

will at

most grant

such cases as the abuse of the child

this in

by the parents, but will add that these are fortunately exceptional

whom

cases to

The

the generalization

is

not applicable.

dream of the death of the father or mother, as

to everyone, contains the sought-for explanation. " from it that the dream of the death of parents

ingly

common

occurs

it

Freud shows is

preponderat-

same sex

concerning that one of the pair of the

as the dreamer, so the son, for the most part dreams of the death

This

of the father, the daughter of the death of the mother." behavior

is

explained

in part as

due to an early sexual preference

of the son for the mother, the daughter for the father.

Out of

preference grows a certain rivalry of the son with the father

this

and a similar situation between

for the love of the mother,

daughter and mother for the love of the

father.

earlier or later against the patria potestas, in in others inwardly.

At

the

The

son rebels

some cases openly,

same time the father protects

his

dominance against the growing son. A similar relation occurs between mother and daughter. As much as culture may soften or change this rivalry, through piety towards the parents, through love of the children,

still

its

traces cannot be extinguished.

the most favorable cases these tendencies

unconscious. Children,

who

become repressed

are disposed to nervous or psychic disease, show,

very strong love or a very strong

repulsion towards the parents or towards one of them.

dreams they show these tendencies especially however,

in the

gives very instructive 1

"

in the

Straightway they express themselves in dreams.

already in the early years, a

clearly,

In

symptoms of

their later disease.

7 examples of this kind.

Traumdeutung," Seite 179

f

.

In their

clearly, not less

He

cites,

Freud

among

CHILDHOOD PHANTASIES IN DREAMS AND MYTHS others, the case of a mentally

ill

girl

who

9

for the first time, in a

period of confusion, expressed violent aversion for her mother.

As

became

the patient

clearer she

dreamt of the death of her

Finally she no longer contented herself with repressing in the unconscious her feelings against her mother, but proceeded

mother.

to over-compensate for that

that

is

feeling by constructing a phobia,

a morbid fear, that something might happen to the mother.

The aversion became

transposed, the

more the

patient gained

com-

posure, into an excessive apprehension about her mother's goings

and comings.

I

have myself

As complementary

it

lately

may

observed a quite similar case.

be mentioned that the dreams of

adults not infrequently turn on the death of a child.

women, who

from

suffer

Fathers or mothers,

who

their condition, in the

waking

Pregnant

dream of an abortion.

state tenderly love their

child,

dream under

when

the existence of the child interferes with the attainment of

an

special conditions that

dead, for example,

object.

The

typical

dream then contains wishes which we In the dream

ing life will not admit.

we meet

occupy us myths.

The

also in the myths. is,

then, the

We must

tioned, he has

common

first

our wak-

in

these secret wishes find

life

These wishes, common to many or to

expression.

—

it is

all

mankind,

point of comparison to

content of certain dreams and

follow Freud's lead

still

further.

—

For, as men-

analyzed a particular myth the CEdipus saga from the viewpoint set forth in his " Traumdeutung." I cite

literally the

"

first

8 following passage from Freud.

CEdipus, son of Laius, King of Thebes, and Jocasta, was, as

a suckling, exposed, because an oracle had prophesied to the father, that the yet

unborn son would be

his murderer.

He was

saved and grew up as a king's son in a strange court, until he, uncertain of his origin, questioned the oracle himself and received

from

it

the advice, to avoid his home, because he would be the

murderer of 8

"

his father

Traumdeutung,"

and the mate of

Seite 180

f.

his mother.

On

the

way

DREAMS AND MYTHS

10

from in

supposed home he

his

with King Laius and slew him

fell in

Then he

a quickly stirred up dispute.

arrived before Thebes

where he solved the riddle of the sphinx that blocked the as reward

hand

way and

was chosen king by the Thebans and given Jocasta's He reigned a long time in peace and honor

in marriage.

and begot with his unknown mother two sons and two daughters, until a pestilence broke out, which caused the Thebans again to

Here

consult the oracle.

cease

The

is

the material of the tragedy of Soph-

The messengers brought the answer that the plague would when the murderer of Laius was driven from the land.

ocles.

action of the story

now

consists only in the step

—

gradual and skillfully delayed unfolding

— choanalysis of the

like the

by step

work of

a psy-

GEdipus himself was the murderer

fact that

of Laius and also the son of the murdered King and of jocasta."

The CEdipus tragedy can time of Sophocles, although

and

fate,

from calls

and the

affect us today as deeply as at the

we do

belief in sayings of the oracle.

this correctly that the fable

out in us

not share the views of gods

related feelings.

all

Freud concludes

must contain something that " For us all, perhaps, was it

decreed, to direct the first sexual feeling to the mother, the first

hate and violent wish against the father

In the CEdipus tragedy

that." filled,

while

we

we

;

our dreams convict us of

see our childhood wish ful-

ourselves have recovered from the sexual attrac-

mother and the aversion against the father in the course of our development through feelings of love and piety.

tion of the

As Freud

remarks, the tragedy points to the typical dream in

which the dreamer point "

is

is

sexually united with the mother.

This

the purport of the following:

For many men

also

saw themselves

in

dreams, already united

with their mother."

The tragedy contains the realization of two intimate childhood dream phantasies The phantasy of the death of the father and of :

the love relationship with the mother. zation are represented to us in

all

The

results of their reali-

their terribleness.

CHILDHOOD PHANTASIES IN DREAMS AND MYTHS

The same

conflict

between father and son

myth of Uranus and the

is

represented in the

Uranus seeks

Titans.

to

remove

sons, as he fears their encroachment on his power.

Cronus took revenge by castrating

his

father.

Cronus seeks to secure himself :

He

swallowed them

in the

all

his

His son

This particular

type of revenge points to the sexual side of their rivalry.

children

I I

Then

same manner against

his

except the youngest son Zeus.

This one took revenge on him, compelled him to disgorge the all the other Titans in Tartarus

other children and then banished

according to another version Zeus also castrated his father.

;

Ill

Symbolism in Speech, in Dreams and in Other Phantasies Both the tales of GEdipus and of Uranus and their descendants have not only a related content, but show also in their outer form an important agreement. In both there is lacking, almost alto-

We

gether, the symbolic clothing.

naked words.

worthy of note that this is also true of the we have drawn upon for the explanation of Here also as Freud remarks the symbolic cloth-

these myths.

ing

is

found

—

—

in strikingly slight

development.

In general, in the interpretation of dreams, across

anew

from

It is

dream, which

typical

learn the whole story

we always run

the effects of a psychic determinant which Freud has

This will occupy our attention later; here we will only briefly characterize its most important features. The censor will not permit our secret wishes to show themselves in

called the "censor."

our dreams

in their true, undisguised

form, but forces an obscur-

ing of the true tendency of the dream through the tion."

tensive

The evasion of "

We will

is

dream

distor-

accomplished by a very exmanifestations

more

Only one form of dream distortion must we busy ourselves with now.

The

dream work."

in detail later.

the censor

"

clothing of the wish

consider

—

its

—the symbolic

above discussed dream of the death of the father and sexual tions with the

mother

is

rela-

a striking exception, in so far as here

the wish, which appears to us in the waking state as abhorrent, is

represented quite openly, without symbolic clothing, as

fulfilled.

Freud explains this by two factors. We do not believe ourselves further from any wish than from this one; the censor is not occupied with such monstrosities.

Secondly, the wish

very easily be concealed behind actual apprehension for the of the beloved person.

Now

it

12

is

may life

of the greatest interest that

SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH

I

3

the CEdipus saga and the saga of Cronus and Zeus are also very

poor

in

symbolic means of expression.

self in his

Every man

believes him-

waking consciousness infinitely removed from the hor-

rors of CEdipus or of

Cronus

in his relations to his

children and

to his father.

We

noteworthy analogies exist between and certain It will be necessary to inquire dreams. myths The further whether these analogies have a general significance. state provisionally that

certain

analysis of

most myths

—as of most dreams—

is

by the symbolic clothing of their true content. CEdipus saga, as in the typical dreams of

rendered

difficult

Because

in the

like content, this

com-

plication does not exist, they serve us especially well as an intro-

duction to these interesting problems.

The majority of myths are presented and so

in reality

that their outer

manner

they must contain something or

mean something

form does not

require, like the

dream, to be interpreted.

Prometheus saga

in a symbolic

signify.

As an example

We

will serve us.

They

of a symbolic myth the

will subject this to a

method

The

further

of interpretation similar to that of dream analysis. issue of the comparison of

dreams and myths we

shall continue

by the use of this example. I know upon what contradictions I will strike if I aspire to an interpretation of myths after the model of dream interpretation, and if I maintain that here as well as there the same symbolism governs. It is Freud's great service to have fathomed this

symbolism.

Thanks

to this study

we have

learned to

know

the

between these repeatedly mentioned psychic The value of this knowledge, which was attained by

important relations structures.

the most painstaking studies,

disputed by the

critic.

By

is

the opponents of Freud's teachings

the interpretation of symbols trary.

Freud and

absolutely and often passionately

is

rejected as phantastic and arbi-

his followers are laboring

under the power of

autosuggestion which makes them explain everything

in accord-

DREAMS AND MYTHS

14

They arouse

ance with their preconceived ideas. their critics

the dislike of

by conceiving the symbolism of dreams and related

None

states as expressions of sexual ideas.

much from

do so

differing as they

those

of Freud's teachings,

commonly

held, are at-

tacked with such violence as the interpretation of symbolism.

This

is

of the greatest significance for our further progress.

Therefore, before of any one myth, this part of

my

I enter

upon the exposition of the symbolism

lay the broadest possible foundations for

I will

To

studies.

this

end

I will call attention to the

symbolisms investigated by Freud lie deep in every and have existed at all times' in mankind. Therefore it comes

fact that the

man

to pass that preponderantly the expression of sexual phantasies

My

are brought about by sexual symbolism. tions rest in part

upon

following deduc-

the valuable writings of Kleinpaul. 9

This

author has also seen the necessity of taking a stand against moralizing critics.

"We

I will cite

must point out the

a remark of Kleinpaul's 10 to the point: fact that such

(».

e.,

sexual) phantasies

do not belong only to patriarchal times, where they were natural, but have continued up to the present time, where they are branded Sexual symbolism, I assert, is a psychological pheas corrupt."

nomenon of mankind in all places and times. In the beginnings of our culture it was most clearly in evidence, and in a less crass but always clearer form

it

has asserted

of mankind up to the present day. " Man sexualizes everything." If

we

first

itself in

the psychic

Kleinpaul says very aptly,

glance at the beginning of the plastic

representations of the

human

life

arts,

we

find

sexual parts in endless profusion,

sometimes hidden, sometimes with a clearness that permits of no doubt. Sometimes their forms are used as decorative ornaments, sometimes vases, pitchers, and other utensils of the most different kinds have the •

form of the

genitals. "

"

In the art products

Die Ratsel der Sprache,_" Leben der Sprache," Bd. I Kleinpaul, Bd. 2; "Sprache ohne Worte," Bd. 3; "Das Stromgebiet der Sprache."' 10 " Sprache ohne Worte," Leipzig, 1890, Seite 490. ;

SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH

we

of the most different peoples

5

which according to also bear the name.

find objects,

form and

the type, have borrowed their

I

Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman vessels and utensils are convincing signs of this sexual symbolism existing at all times in

we consider culture we make

the folks.

work and

the art

If

utensils of peoples

the same observation

poor

in

must

intentionally close our eyes.

The

—otherwise

literature of art

is

we

another

wide and fruitful territory for work, for observations of this kind are widely scattered in the literature.

A perhaps

greater significance

is

assumed by sexual symbolism Numerous practices show

in the religious cults of all peoples.

sexual symbolism.

The

cult,

extensive in

fullness, gives occasion for the

no wise simply expresses

many

peoples, of fruit-

most wanton symbolism which

itself in

in

the grossly unequivocal (phal-

lus, etc.).

We

do not need

walks of

Our

life.

at

all,

however, to seek so far from the daily

speech

itself is

the best sign for the signifi-

cance which the sexual has had in the thoughts of mankind at

all

All indogermanic and Semitic languages possess (or did possess in earlier times) gender. That is a fact that is commonly However let us ask ourselves: Why have the little regarded.

times.

words

in

our language masculine and feminine gender? Why lifeless objects one or the other sex?

does language attribute to

A

part of the indogermanic languages have even a third gender

in

which are included those words which

find

no place

in the

;

two

other categories, either because phantasy seeks in vain a sexual

analogy or because on some special ground sexual neutrality is to be emphasized. Indeed the reason why an object has the one

no way always easy to discover. It also to be remembered that many substantives not seldom have

and not the other sex is

is in

two nearly related languages. It would lead we were to go into this highly interesting problem

different genders in

much

too far

of philology.

if

We

shall only refer

here to certain rules, espe-

1

DREAMS AND MYTHS

6

German

daily of the

language.

German language all The folk phantasy com-

In the

diminutives belong to the neuter gender.

pares them to undeveloped, not

grown

Of

persons.

small

we

children in

full

many

say by preference "it" and treat them as neuters; " " it so long places grown girls are spoken of still as

only as they are not married.

Maiden (Madchen) and Miss

(Fraulein) are diminutive and therefore neuter until they marry.

Animals have many quite different names according as to whether they are male or female. Other animals, however, are considered under one of the three grammatical sexes whether feminine or In certain cases the cause

masculine.

is

apparent.

Of

the animals,

those are masculine in which one finds the characteristics which

belong to the man, as especially bodily strength, courage,

etc.

Therefore the great beasts and birds of prey are masculine.

Cat

(Die Katze) we

generally use as feminine; her submissive nature,

her grace and adroitness remind one of feminine characteristics.

These examples are sufficient. That also lifeless things are sexualized noteworthy

fact.

There are

in speech

is

a

still

guages, are regularly or preferably given a certain sex. presented some of the

more

objects, which, in the different lan-

Here

is

familiar sexual symbolisms of different

The ship, in German, bears by preference the feminine Also the name given to the ship is usually feminine, even

peoples.

gender.

though it is otherwise masculine. So in the English language, which only shows the rudiments of a sexual differentiation, the ship

feminine; but the battleship

is

man and

called

tion that

we

and a of

stern,

life,

man-of-war."

is

compared

to the fighting

It is significant for this

concep-

on the keel of many ships a female figure as an

In seamen's eyes the ship not simply has shoulders it

is

comparable to the ark, that conceals the germ was borne by the women at the

to the mystic casket that

feasts of

god

find

"

ornament.

"

Siva,

Demeter and Dionysus. it

It is like the

moves on the sea with the mast

mate of the Indian as with a phallus"

SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH

The

mention here

like to

still

sailor lives, often for a long time, separated

while he

man

would

I

(Kleinpaul).

1

is

lives

bound

He

to his ship.

lives

another idea.

from

his wife

with his ship as the lands-

So the

with his wife and family.

7

ship becomes figura-

tively the sailor's wife.

The spot "

is

pupil of the

sexualized in

human

which appears as a round, black the same way in the most different languages. eye,

Pupilla" in Latin signifies a maiden the Sanskrit Kauna, have

niiia,

all

has two expressions, one signifies little

man (Mannlein).

The

self in the pupil of another,

little

;

the Greek Koprj, the Spanish

the same sense.

according to the view of most investi-

gators, gives the occasion for this naming.

spot in the middle of the

phantasy with a hole and

is

Kleinpaul protests

and offers a more

against this poetic explanation

The round

The Hebrew

maiden (Madchen), the other reflection that one sees of him-

iris is

naturalistic one.

compared by a naive

treated as a gross symbol for the

female sex, quite as happens, for example, with the ear.

ever explanation may be correct—the

Which-

fact remains of the sexual-

izing of wholly asexual objects.

German

In certain

and feminine.

hooks and eyes indicate masculine

dialects

Expressions like mother, matrix, punch exist in

always expressed a cavity and In Italian there are masculine and feminine

the most various trades; there

a pin which

fits

in

it.

is

keys according as they have solid or hollow ends to oppose to the lock.

We all

speak of

cities,

yes of whole countries as female.

trees are, for us, feminine

the tertium comparationis. strongly supported rule

;

Nearly

manifestly the bearing of fruit

In Latin the femininity of trees

("Die Weiber, Baume,

is

is

a

Stadte, Land,"

etc.).

I confine

myself to a few pregnant examples.

little into the study of his

this

sexual

Sprache"

"

symbolism.

If

own tongue he everywhere Kleinpaul's

Das

offers rich material in this respect.

one dips a runs across

Stromgebiet

der

1

DREAMS AND MYTHS

8

Human

fancy imputes sex also to

shows the powerful

lifeless

It follows further, that

man

no way stands to

in

This

objects.

human

significance of the sexual in

phantasy.

lifeless objects

which

in a clearly objective but in a distinctly subjective relation,

springs from

his sexuality.

It lies

deep

in the nature

man

of

that he should attribute life to the things that surround him:

the child scolds

Man

himself.

and

strikes the table

on which he has struck

does not confine himself however to attributing And so we come to

things but he sexualizes them also.

life to

an understanding of the view of Kleinpaul above, that ualizes everything.

It is

guage and biologico-medical investigations lead to the same results.

As Freud 11 has shown, is

stages

auto-erotic, that

first

sex-

in this particular

man in its early know any object

the sexual impulse of is,

man

outside of himself on which he

At

man

noteworthy that investigations in lan-

is

does not yet

able to concentrate his libido.

the libido gradually turns to other objects, at this time,

however, not only

human and

living,

but also

lifeless.

It will

be the object of another publication to deal with this radiation of the sexuality, especially of the abnormalities in this territory,

which for the comprehension of certain mental disorders are of very broad significance.

We

have established, that

all

mankind from the beginning,

has given great weight to the sexual differences. uality displays a

ual satisfaction.

Human

sex-

need of expansion far beyond the object of sexMan permeates and impresses everything in his

environment with his sexuality and language

is

the witness of his,

Such facts appear notably opposed to the reproach that Freud and his followers overestimate the role of the sexuality in the normal and pathological at all times, creative sexual phantasy.

mental

much

life.

nearer.

u See No.

7,

"

The danger of underestimating appears

An

to

me

to lie

often heard objection to Freud runs further,

Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie." English translation of Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series.

SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH

I

that the impulse of self-preservation governs

much

human

life

9

to a

greater extent than the sexual impulse; the prominent

position of the latter

The aim

therefore an exaggeration.

is

the investigation inaugurated by Freud

is

of

in finding in every-

thing a sexual meaning.

In consciousness certainly the impulse

of self-preservation with

its

precedence.

radiations

may

often enough have

The opponents of Freud, however, commit

that only conscious processes are referred to.

the error

Freud has never

maintained that the conscious sexual ideas have, among all the It is precisely the unconothers, unconditioned superiority. scious, repressed ideas

which influence phantasy

in the strongest

manner. All objections brought against Freud's sexual theory melt

away

we

into nothing if

only consider our mother tongue.

guage springs, as nothing else does,

Out

a people.

of

it

speaks the phantasy of a people

a thousand symbols and analogies of which

itself in

are hardly conscious anymore.

Lan-

from the innermost being of

We

it

expresses

we

ourselves

;

do not speak a sentence

in

which a symbolic expression does not occur. This symbolism is, however, in an important and weighty part, of a sexual character.

I

return once more to the fact that there are in our lan-

guage masculine, feminine, and sexless (neuter) words. If the opponents of Freud are right, that is if in reality the impulse of self-preservation and not the sex impulse plays the predominant role in the mental that the

Why to

language

is

life

of man,

it

must be very surprising

divided according to sexual viewpoints!

does not language rather discriminate things according as

whether they are favorable or not to our impulse to

preservation?

Why

self-

not differentiate instead of masculine, fem-

and sexless things perhaps edible, potable, and as a third category, inedible things? There are a number of objects and activities which since the earliest times have served as sexual inine,

symbols.

We

find

them with

this

meaning

in the

Bible,

the

DREAMS AND MYTHS

20

Vedas, in the Greek and in the Norse myths, in the poetry of the pre-historic times, in dreams and so forth, again and again. Here belongs, for example, the serpent as a symbol of the male

member.

In Genesis

is

it

and Norse legends we 12

The

significance.

the seducer of Eve.

again find the

In the German

serpent with the same

serpent plays an important role in the dreams

women; the significance of the symbol seems to be evident. The superstitious fear of the snake is surely dependent upon the

of

same

women

We

13

idea.

not

hear,

infrequently,

from mentally

ill

that they have been attacked by snakes, that they have

crawled into their genitals or their mouth. We know that the mouth in this sense is only a substitute for the vulva. (Freud's "

Verlegung nach oben."

Compare

also Riklin's writings already

cited.)

Another very popular symbol the fruitfulness of the

is

the apple which represents

Eve seduced Adam with

woman.

the

14

apple.

The depth of sexual symbolism in man is shown in a very Stimulus words instructive way in the associations experiment. are called out to the subject to which he must react with other

words occurring

to him.

The

choice of the reaction

word

well as certain signs accompanying the reaction show, in cases, that the stimulus "

path-way, a nature. 15

u

The "

Riklin,

18 14

word has

hit

as

many

upon, through an associative

complex," existing in the subject, of a sexual readiness, even of the most innocent words to as-

Psychologie und Sexualsymbolik der Marchen."

Compare remarks on

p. 58.

One symbol of fruitfulness is the pomegranate evidently on account of its many seeds. It is therefore the attribute of Juno the goddess of wedlock. The poppy-head, rich in seeds, is an attribute of Venus. In one saga Venus changed herself into a carp; the great number of eggs born by the female carp was proverbial in ancient times. In many countries at the

time of the wedding the bridal pair are pelted with

practices

prevail

in

many

"

places

;

it

signifies

the

Similar

rice.

blessing of

children.

Sprache ohne Worte," p. 27. Compare Kleinpaul, 15 In the work of the Zurich psychiatric clinic (especially in " " " Jung Diagnostischen Assoziationsstudien ") the term complex

that of is

used

for a strongly feeling-toned group of ideas, which has the tendency to split off from consciousness and be repressed into the unconscious.

SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH

21

similatc to the complex, in the symbolic sense of the complex,

is

This tendency does not at all come into the when he answers with the reaction

often enormous.

consciousness of the subject

word.

In

cases they can themselves explain the depend-

many

ence of the reaction word on a sexual complex whereby they

must overcome a more or a more

less

strong inhibition.

analytic effort

difficult

In other cases

required on the part of the

is

Whoever has

investigator in order to uncover the connection.

some experience

in the technic of the

analysis, will find

enough evidence

signs, in

is

and the accom-

a

clinic

list

of one hundred stimulus

by very many persons has given interrelative to the sexual symbolism of the uncon-

in use

esting results scious,

in the reaction

order to give his questions the right direction.

panying In the Zurich psychiatric

words

experiment and psycho-

;

their use

which besides, Freud has

fully

covered by results obtained

in other ways.

Some examples might calls

forth striking psychic

the verb "to

word

plough"

A

serve to explain.

stimulus word, that

phenomena with great

As an

(pfliigen).

regularity

is

experimental stimulus

all those appearances that we have learned to recognize, through experience, as signs of an emotion: Lengthening of the reaction time, failure to underit

produces in the subject

stand or repetition of the stimulus word, stuttering in pronouncing the stimulus word, signs of embarrassment, etc. Evidently

"to plow"

is

considered by the subject as a symbolic representa-

tion of the sexual act.

It is interesting that in

well as in the Oriental languages

"

"

to

Greek and Latin as used quite generally

plow Other stimulus words such as "long" (lang), "mast" (Mast), "needle" (Nadel), "narrow" (eng), "part" is

in this sense. 16

(Teil), are with astonishing regularity assimilated in a sexual sense.

We

take up words, which are

such association, in a sexual sense. is

present this "Kleinpaul,

tendency "

is

commonly used without

If a strong sexual

especially great.

Ratsel der Sprache,"

p.

136.

complex

DREAMS AND MYTHS

22

In the face of such facts

symbolism, and of all mankind.

it

appears quite clear to

especially the sexual,

The

cance ascribed to

it,

is

a

common

me

that

possession

objection, that symbolism, or the signifi-

exists only in the phantasy of a biased in17

Kleinpaul expresses his meaning on this " Symbols are not made, point with great precision and exactness 18 but not are there are but they invented, only discovered." they vestigator falls down.

:

;

I will

not be satisfied to refer to Freud's deductions and the

example of a dream analyzed by him, but will give here a fragment of a dream analysis, so far as it is necessary for the explanation of the symbolism; the remaining dream material, for reasons of brevity, I will not consider.

was

told to

me by an

The dream, which

acquaintance, runs as follows:

"

I am alone in a long room. Suddenly I hear a subterranean noise, which does not astonish me, however, as I immediately remember, that from a place below a subterranean canal runs

up a trap-door in the floor, and immea creature appears clothed in a brownish fur that resem-

out to the water. diately

I lift

and appeared clearly as my brother, who prayed of me, exhausted and breathless, to give him shelter, as he had run away without permission and bled very nearly a seal.

"

It

threw

off the fur

"

Sprache ohne Worte," p. 26. Freud disdain to busy themselves seriously with symbols and their nature. Recently, for example, Weygandt (" Kritische Bemerkungen zur Psychologie der Dementia praecox," Monatsschrift fur Psychiatrie und Neurologie, Bd. 22, 1907) has attempted designedly to attribute the most absurd meaning to the symptoms of a dream state. He believes to have shown thereby the arbitrariness and absurdity of the Freudian method of interpretation. Here the fundamental error of the critic is manifest. It is believed that the symbol is arbitrarily invented, consciously produceable. It follows, however, from Freud's writings that symbolism has its roots in the unconscious. Always then, when the domination of the conscious is wholly or partially abolished in sleep, in dream 18

Kleinpaul,

The

critics of

—

—

disturbed attention repressed ideational material emerges. These ideas appear in disguised form; they avail themselves of symbolism. As Bleuler deduces (" Freudsche Mechanismen in der Symptomatologie der Psychosen," Psychiatr.-neurol. Wochenschrift, 1906) symbolism depends upon a lower form of associative activity, which instead Of this sort of of logical connection makes use of vague analogies. associative activity we are not at all capable in times of clear consciousness and alert attention. Symbolism consequently can not be arbitrarily states,

in

invented.

states

of

SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH

23

under water the whole way. I induced him to stretch himout on a couch in the room, and he fell asleep. A few mo-

swum self

ments

My

heard renewed a

later I

much

louder noise at the door.

brother sprang up with a cry of terror: they will take me,

they will think

I

have deserted

:

He

slipped on his furs and tried

through the subterranean canal, turned about immehowever, and said: Nothing can be done, they have

to escape diately,

At this moment occupied the passage from here to the water the door sprung open and several men rushed in and seized my !

brother.

I

cried to

will plead for

him

!

them despairingly: he has done nothing,

— At

this

moment

The dreamer had been married early period of pregnancy.

I

for

I

awoke."

some time and was

She looks forward

in the

to her confine-

In the evening she had had various about the development and physiology of the fetus exthings

ment, not without anxiety.

She had already pretty well

plained to her by her physician.

oriented herself in relation to the whole subject from books but still

had some erroneous

ideas.

She had, for example, not corFurther, she rep-

rectly grasped the significance of the waters.

resented to herself the fine fetal hair (lanugo) as thick like that

on a young animal.

The Water

canal that leads directly into the water

= amniotic

like a seal.

The

fluid.

Out of

seal is a hairy

this canal

pected child, appears immediately

:

fact,

lives in

The brother

considerably younger than the dreamer.

the early death of the mother she had to care for in a relationship to

She

still

water quite

This creature, the ex-

quick, easy confinement.

appears as the brother of the dreamer.

matter of

birth canal.

comes a hairy animal

animal that

as the fetus lives in the amniotic fluid.

= the

him

preferably called

is,

It

as a

After

him and stood

had much of motherliness in it. him the " little one " and both younger

that

The younger brother repreShe wished for a visit from him

children together "the children."

sented the expected child.

DREAMS AND MYTHS

24

(she lived at a considerable distance from her family), so she

awaited

Here

the brother, second the child.

first

analogy between brother and child.

is

the second

She wished, because of

reasons that have no particular interest here, that her brother

The

residence in the dream.

"

Therefore he has

leave his place of residence.

lies

place

deserted

lies

The

on the water.

the dream, has an outlook

his

on the water; he swims

there very often (the third analogy with the fetus!).

residence

"

Also her

small room, in which she had

In the room stands

upon the water.

a lounge that can be used as a bed

;

it

serves as a bed

when

there

a guest who remains over night. She awaited her brother, as such a guest, in this room. A fourth analogy: the room will later become a nursery, the baby will sleep there is

!

The brother

when he arrives. He has swum Also the fetus, when it has left the canal, breath. The brother falls to sleep at once like

is

under the water.

must struggle for a child soon after

Now

breathless

its birth.

follows a scene in which the brother exhibits a lively

no escape.

One such

the confinement.

This pre-

anxiety in a situation out of which there

imminent

to the

dreamer herself

is

is

pares anxiety for her already in advance. displaces the anxiety to the fetus by it.

senting

hausted.

down—

She induces him

way down because he

in the

dream she

active

is

affair in

still

so ex-

and

lets

the brother

and must act as an advocate, "plead."

child

and a

lie

down. is

a

This role she takes

Therefore she displaces her

This dream contains symbols which

Between a

lie

another way: The brother

from him, she will plead for him. anxiety on him.

examples.

is

After the confinement she will be exhausted and

She extends the jurist

to lie

In the dream she

of the brother repre-

seal,

may

serve as typical

between a subterranean

canal and the birth canal there exist only vague analogies.

Not-

withstanding one

The

is

used

for the other in the

dream.

SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH

25

brother of the dreamer appears in place of the child, although he has been grown up for a long time. For her he is just the

one (der Kleine). The dream makes use by preference of such words which can be understood in different senses. little

The

dream

wish-fulfilling of this

is in

for an easy confinement about which

it

part evident:

The wish

not necessary to be

is

anxious, and the wish to be able to care for the brother.

It is

probable that this, not fully and finally interpreted dream, contains

still

a further concealed wish-fulfillment within

itself.

In order to show that certain psychopathological states have the

same

sort of

symbolism

I will

The

give only one example.

hallucinations of the mentally deranged whether they continue for

years or only appear transitorily during a dream semble the dream pictures to an extraordinary extent.

many

shows that

alysis

A

little girl

a drunkard, in

ened to

it is

when

state, re-

The

an-

not simply a superficial similarity.

was abused by her uncle, the barn near her parents' house. He had threat-

set the

ten years of age

house on

she resisted him.

fire if

Through the

intimidation of the threats she yielded to the uncle several times.

On

one occasion of

memory

crystallized

this sort

her mind became disordered, the

on the sexual outrage and self-reproach,

which she had on account of her compliance, the real content of the psychosis and which determined the symptoms. She con-

was throughout

cealed herself behind a sexual symbolism which in accord with the

of this case which teresting sentence:

dream symbolism. I

From

the original account

have already published 19

The

patient suffered for

I will cite this in-

many

years with

nocturnal visions, she saw especially the burning barn. vision

is

start a fire

and had abused her

frightful dreams.

Once

there

in the barn.

came a

lot

Besides she had

of owls; they looked

at her sharply, flew at her, tore off her covering 19

"

This

plainly doubly determined; the uncle had threatened to

and smock and

tiber die Bedeutung sexueller Jugendtraumen fiir die Symptomatologie der Dementia praecox," Zentralblatt f. Nervenheilk., 1907.

DREAMS AND MYTHS

26 cried

shame on you, you are naked

:

This

!

is

plainly a reminis-

Later in the waking state, she saw hell. The scene which she saw here was strongly sexually colored. cence of the outrage.

She saw "transformed creatures," half animal, half human, as snakes, tigers, owls. There appeared also drunkards who changed into

tigers

and attacked female animals.

fulfillments contained in these visions

the whole history of the case. the symbol.

Here

Especially interesting

uncle of the patient in the

"

In the wish-

and dreams one recognizes is

is

sufficient to

understand

the incorporation of the

transformed creature," which was

compounded of the drunkard and the tiger.

The drunkenness

and beastly roughness of the uncle were united in a symbol. The serpent, in a clearly sexual scene, can have no other meaning than that we have already learned to know. Certain species of animals play a large role as sexual symbols in dreams and in

One patient I knew, who was very erotic and who from hebephrenia gave the name of " beauty beasts "

the psychoses. suffered

(Schonheitstiere) to the animals that appeared to her in hallucinations. erotic

A

euphemism which

is

still

not fully free from the

!

Riklin has accumulated excellent examples of this kind from the legends of different peoples.

Finally I

may

refer to the

symbolism in the novel of Jensen analyzed by Freud.

IV Analysis of the Prometheus Saga

Through the most

different kinds of

human phantasy

symbolism runs which in a very substantial part turn

now

to the analysis of the

While we

myth.

ourselves with the symbolism in

its

construction

is

the

same

sexual.

will only it

I

busy

presents

still

other important analogies with dreams.

According to the view of the Greeks Prometheus created man and then robbed the gods of fire in order to bring it to his creatures. That man was created by a higher being is an idea which

we meet among

the most varied peoples.

familiar to us

it is

the creator of

man

who robbed is

Although perfectly an explanation. The account of lacking as not a true god-head and also not a man,

still

the gods of fire and thus

likewise in need of explanation.

parative mythology

of

;

him the

to

came

Kuhn

science

is

is

in conflict

the founder of com-

indebted for a

fundamental studies of different mythological

follows from these that certain of the

with Zeus,

common

number

figures.

It

traditions of the

Indogermanic folks are contained in the Indian Vedas in much original form than they were known from the Greek and

more

So he succeeded

other origins.

in tracing the figures of

Athene,

Wotan, and other gods and heroes of the Greek and Germanic myths, to Vedic origins and thereby has the Centaurs, Orpheus,

been able to give the true explanation of the sense of the myths.

Of

greater significance for mythological research

"Uber tertranks" (1859, new

hensive treatise

die

is his compreHerabkunft des Feuers und des Got-

edition 1886).

His footsteps were forth-

with followed by other investigators as Delbruck, Steinthal,

Cohen, Roth,

Max

Miiller,

Schwarz. 27

I

give in the following

DREAMS AND MYTHS

28

only the most important results of Kuhn's researches, confining myself moreover to technical grounds preliminarily of the myth of the origin of the

fire.

I will confine

myself in part to the re20

sume of Kuhn's work which Steinthal has given in a critical review; I have also made use of the general remarks which Cohen 21 has added to Kuhn's deductions. It is naturally not compass of

possible in the

this presentation, to completely present

for the several points of the analysis, the proofs of comparative

must refer

philology and mythology.

In this respect

original as well as to the

two works of Steinthal and Cohen

I

to the

named.

So

far the investigations give us the explanation that all Indo-

by rubbing. We can point to this historical times even the technical expressions be-

germanic peoples produced

method

still

longing to in culture

came

it

in

fire

;

are

we

known

still

Among

to us.

people of other races poor

meet to-day the same procedure. How man through friction may remain uncertain.

to generate fire

According to Kuhn nature may have been the teacher of man: he might have observed in the primitive forest, how a dry twig of an ivy, moved by the wind, was rubbed in the hollow of a branch

and then broke out

in flames.

Peschel 22 has already drawn at-

tention to the improbability of this explanation; he thinks that

by boring and other mechanical occupations learned to

know of

the heating of

he observed similar occurrences

man must have

two objects by

friction, besides

in nature.

The primitive means of producing fire consisted of a stick of hard wood and a piece of soft wood which contained a hollow. Through turning and boring movements of the stick in the hole the

wood was

set

on

Fire created in this

fire.

characteristic that after a time

"

"

Steinthal, olkerpsychologie Zeitschrift. f. " 31

V

it

goes out

Die Prometheussaga

in

;

it

way shows

the

must then be called

ihrer urspriinglichen

Gestalt,"

und Sprachwissenschaft, Bd. 2, 1862. Cohen, H., Mythologische Vorstellungen von Gott und Seele," Zeitschrift. f. V olkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, Bd. 5 u. 6, 1868 u. 1869. 22

Peschel,

"

Volkerkunde,"

6.

Aufl., Leipzig, 1885, S. 141.

ANALYSIS OF THE PROMETHEUS SAGA

Man made

forth anew.

one other the sun

fire

same observation, however, about

— namely, the heavenly.

appears to

him

he saw further rays of burning.

the

29

In the heavens the

of

fire

warming and lighting; sometimes descending from heaven, lighting and

daily, fire

The heavenly

fire

So

also goes out after a while.

probably there must be something in heaven that burns and goes

According to a very ancient idea the Indo-germanic races beheld in the cloud formations a tree the earthly ash which we out.

—

meet again and again

man

in the

The wood

most varied myths.

of

When

they saw the fire of heaven there the wood of the heavenly ash was burnThe lightning darting from heaven to earth was fire coming. From this arose the belief that the ing down from the ash. the ash serves

earthly fire

was

means of making

as a

fire.

descended from heaven.

fire

The quick movemind the flight of

ment of the lightning through the air called to from this arose the further assumption, a

birds;

nested in the heavenly ash has brought the heavenly

fire to earth.

In the myths of different peoples and at different times eagle, role.

the

it is

the hawk, or the woodpecker, that have been assigned this Certain kinds of trees, for example, the mountain ash

which bears red

fruit,

thorns and feathery leaves serve as a trans-

formation of the lightning bird. again the color,

To

In these parts are recognized

claws, and feathers of the

the heavenly and earthly

fire

there

birds.

was added

of the Indo-germanic myths a third kind, the

touch here on the same analogy that

made

cation of the heavenly and the earthly

So long

awakened.

also be

And

warm.

like

every

fire

of the

fire.

disc of

wood

As so

fire is is

as

it

fires.

fire

in the ideas

of

life.

We

possible the identifi-

The

life fire

must

dwells in the body the body

the life-fire also goes out.

is

The most

production and the preparation produced by the boring of a stick in a

apt analogy lay, however,

Many

which

bird,

in the

human

are the evidences

life

created in the mother's

for this

womb.

conception in myths and

in

DREAMS AND MYTHS

30 I will

language.

only mention here that the two principal parts

of the primitive apparatus for the production of

names of the male and female

the

was

fire

To

genitals.

often bear

such an extent

view of the people transferred to flesh and blood. Even more: We find the same identification in the Semitic lanthis

Hebrew

In

guages.

nifies exactly the

the expression for male and

So now the origin of the wise

is

from

also

it

The

bird to the earth.

A

the creation of man, like-

life-fire,

From

transferred above to the ash.

like the fire;

like the fire,

man,

is

also the

Latin

and

life

ignis, fire),

at the

same

myths of

;

only

who

gives

it

Agni

is

the fire-bird, lightning

makes him the mained the

first

tutelar

:

sun and lightning, man. In the

also the first

was

A

same time the

in the oldest

light-

Latin myths

Latin version of the myth

king of Latium; besides, however, he re-

god of

sequently the god of

old anal-

a new form the god of fire we meet a god Agni (agni

also at the

and man.

new stratum

It retains the

fire, light,

is

Picus, the woodpecker,

ning-bird.

brought by a

=

incorporates

time, however, he

different peoples

With

it

In the Vedas

man-god.

is

say, settles like a

in the myths, concerns the man-like gods. fire

comes mankind

it

stork that brings the children.

which so to

later epoch,

ogy of

female sig-

borer and the hollowed.

lying-in

women and

sucklings

—con-

life.

the increasing personification of the gods everything

in nature

became

either a product or

an attribute of the gods.

was now no longer a god but was produced by a god. A god starts the sun fire, which had expired, by boring in the sun disc anew each morning; he produces lightning when he casts a

So

fire

dart in the storm clouds.

As with

the heavenly fire so with the

must always be generated anew. When the fire goes out Agni has disappeared; he must have hidden himself. As he hides himself in heaven in a cloud (the cloud tree), so he hides earthly,

it

himself on earth in the wooden disc, from which he can be called

ANALYSIS OF THE PROMETHEUS SAGA

myth, whose

oldest

I

Here we meet a new personage

forth by boring and rubbing. in the

3

name

(in the

Vedas)

Matarichvan.

is

Matarichvan brings Agni, who is. hidden in the clouds or in the woods, back to earth. According to another version he finds

Agni

He

in a cavern.

he needs to the mother

"

— that

man

brings to

His name

live.

the light and "

he

signifies

who

again lightning or the boring

is

warmth which works

swells or stick.

Matarichvan, the fire-bringer, corresponds in the Greek to Prometheus.

In historical times the

to as

"

As an

older form he

nifies first the

"

is,

forth-rubber," that

brings something

"

fore-

other things, referred

among

This name has a double meaning.

Pramantha."

myth

name Prometheus, which

has experienced various changes, has been interpreted as thought,"

in

It sig-

one who through rubbing

is,

forth.

Through rubbing he brings the fire forth and generates man. " " Here it is to be noted that matha signifies the male genitals.

The second meaning

of Pramantha

he

idea, that

He

heaven. sort of

wood

—

like

forms: as

fire

we

thus see

with

fire,

man

fire

the other

or stole the fire from

that serves for the creation of

is,

one of the

fire.

represented in three different

(fire-god), as fire-maker (or rubber, or fetcher)

finally as man.

cause

—brought

fire, is

concealed the sparks in a shrub, that

In the myth

and

Matarichvan

Close to

the fire-robber.

is

the idea that Prometheus-Pramantha created the

as the first

Man

in the

myth,

man sometimes

is

in so far also identical

springs from

conceals within himself the fire of

life.

fire,

and be-

Infantilism in Individual and Folk Psychology. fulfillment in Dream and Myth

The

short presentation, which I have made,

is

Wish-

capable of

giving only an incomplete idea of the multiplicity of sources which meet in the Prometheus saga. Their investigation was of the greatest scientific significance.

common view

that the

myth

rests

on a natural

Kuhn

intuition.

outside of the content which

of the words, has

still

sought to show that every

He pointed

symbolical expressions.

out that every myth

evident at once from the meaning

is

a latent content, which 23

a break with the

a figurative expression of a philo-

is

sophical or religious thought.

myth

led to

They

Whoever

is

is

concealed behind

acquainted with Freud's

method of dream interpretation and the dream-theory, which was derived from it, will observe, that between Kuhn's interpretation of the Prometheus saga and Freud's interpretation of dreams farreaching analogies exist.

When

to

two structures which out-

wardly show such important differences, as is the case with dreams and myths, the same methods of investigation are applicable, one is able to see therein a new confirmation of the hypothesis that

behind outer differences there

relationship.

The example

lies

concealed an inner

of the Prometheus saga will serve to

demonstrate the psychological relationship of dreams and myths.

The myth of Prometheus, 23

Kuhn

so far as

it

occupies us here,

may

not afraid to speak openly of the sexual character of these symbols. That such a doctrine should be attacked as unscientific and immoral we have, in our day, sufficiently endured. Steinthal undertakes, in I cannot his work already cited (p. 3), to defend Kuhn on both sides. refrain from quoting his words here, because they appear to be directed " When prophetically against the opponents of the Freudian teachings. with the exactness, and the conscientiousness of a judge, the importance of each reason is examined and without persuasion is presented ungarnished and the conclusions always drawn with the greatest caution, it merits not only scientific but moral recognition." 32 is

INFANTILISM IN INDIVIDUAL AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY be told

in

The

a few words.

few words reveals to

these

which the true sense of

significance,

us, takes a

33

very

much

greater space.

Quite similar relations exist in the case of dreams. A short dream contains much more than we could guess from the simple relation.

same way as Freud has established

In the

in myths, there

is

interpretation

needed.

tation of dreams, discover the ideas

and feelings of the whole

material, which have found expression

The more

dreams, so

For the discovery of the latter a method of This must, the same as in the interpre-

a latent content. is

in

found concealed behind the manifest content

in the

myth.

or less important differences of the latent and mani-

dream content explains why the dreamer only seldom is able understand his own dream. He interprets the dream to him-

fest

to

and disputes probably the idea that the dream contains any sense at all if he tries really to penetrate the significance of his dream he gives an insufficient explanation beself as senseless, absurd,

;

cause

it

only takes into consideration the manifest content.

not otherwise with the folks!

They

the latent content of their myths.

An

planation of them.

example

dreams of the death of near

It is

likewise do not understand

They

give an insufficient ex-

will easily explain this.

relatives,

with which

we have

The

already

occupied ourselves, are, by the persons in which they occur, probably without exception falsely interpreted.

Quite similarly the Greeks mistook the true meaning of the Prometheus saga. They misunderstood even the meaning of the name Prometheus. We will return to this point.

The tal

fact that the myth-creating people suppress their

product as the

tion.

dreamer does

Freud gives

in his

dream requires an explana" The dream is a frag-

as the key to this riddle

ment of the repressed

life

:

of the infantile psyche."

not understandable without something further.

view

in the

following way.

sions than our

memory

is

Our mind

own men-

This assertion

Freud comes to his

preserves far

commonly aware

of.

is

more impres-

Especially do

we

DREAMS AND MYTHS

34

"forget" readily such reminiscences as are associated with a painful feeling-tone.

They

however, not absolutely obliterated,

are,

but only the capacity for voluntary reproduction

We have

already

unconscious.

come

to

Especially

is

withdrawn.

know this process of repression into the do we tend to put out of our conscious-

ness wishes that remain unfulfilled or are unfulfillable on account

of the painful feeling-tone that receive

a large and

Dreams

attached to them.

is

portion of their material

essential

from

repressed ideas; only a smaller and less important part of the

dream content holds true

is

when

the activity of consciousness

Then

pathological processes.

The

symptoms.

The

up out

especially well

idea of repression

indis-

is

most various pathological

for the explanation of the

pensible

The

also old reminiscences rise

and dementia praecox.

thing

disturbed by

is

We may observe this

of the depths of repression. in hysteria

The same

actually of recent occurrence.

repressed memories

may

originate at any age.

showing, however, that the ultimate basis of a dream or of the symptom of a

have succeeded

results of careful analysis

given mental disease, fulfills his

is

in

a reminiscence of childhood.

The

child

wishes, the real, unrepressed ones even, so far as they

are not realized, in day and dream phantasies.

In later years

these phantasy activities are, by preference, relegated to sleep.

In the dream the adult preserves, not only the childhood species of thinking but also the object of the infantile thoughts. tile

The

infan-

wishes and events rest in the bosom of the unconscious, only

They wait

apparently forgotten.

vidual has an experience which rence.

Then

that which

the earlier experience.

is

is

tensity

itself

expresses

analogous to an infantile occur-

analogous will become assimilated to

So the

infantile

reinforcement in the unconscious. it

here, in a way, until the indi-

in

When

:

it

experiences a

attains a certain in-

normal individuals

neurotic or psychotic individuals in the

needs two conditions

memory

in

dreams, in

symptoms of the disease.

It

a lowering of conscious activity as occurs in

INFANTILISM IN INDIVIDUAL AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY

35

dreams and certain pathological states, and an actual occasion. In general one is not inclined to concede to infantile occurrences and wishes such comprehensive

will object that the infantile interests are

later life.

ter

argument.

suppressed by others in

as will be shown, only on apparent coun-

that

is,

The

significance of infantile emotions

Still

niscences for normal and pathological psychology

mated "

at

its

One

do with Freud.

results, as I

and remi-

was never

true value until the appearance, in

esti-

1895, of the

"

by Breuer and Freud. It remains the service of these two authors to have directed attention to the Studien iiber Hysterie

Freud

significance of infantile reminiscences.

still

rated these teachings in the following years.

further elabo-

The view

of the

significance of infantile events has, to be sure, experienced substantial alterations, which,

however,

ment of the doctrine of psychic infantile

exercise

reminiscences

in

no way means an abandonThat the early

infantilism.

so great an

to explain.

If the child has

many

influence

own characteristics. to

show

in

others that proceed directly from his

happenings

in childhood.

in general as follows:

and probably the most

ings,

inborn emotivity.

in his indi-

two small contributions 24 1 have attempted

this for certain sexual

formulate the results

ent,

still

In

able

experiences which are deter-

mined by outside causes, and so are not grounded viduality, yet there are

on the

we may perhaps be

psychic development of the individual

affective, the child

In this

way

it

owes

grounds, certain wishes, that his nature it

is

can

to his inher-

comes about that the

early youth has not yet learned to subordinate,

alive to all impressions, that

We

a part of the happen-

on

child

ethical

not yet blunted but

is

therefore reacts with greater and

less restrained intensity.

The memories of childhood

assimilate later.

Namely, the

repressed infantile wishes establish themselves in the later 24

"

life.

"Qber die Bedeutung sexueller Jugendtrauman fur die Abraham, Zentralblatt fiir NervenheilSymptomatologie der Dementia praecox," " Das Erleiden sexueller Traumen als kunde und Psychiatrie, 1907, and

Form

infantiler Sexualbetatigung."

DREAMS AND MYTHS

$6 I

am reminded

mother and

here of the infantile preference of the son for the

his rivalry with the father as well as the

An

ciated with this feeling.

memory of

actual occasion

Now

childhood.

This example stands for

finds

it

wish asso-

wakes again

this

expression in a dream.

that serve to explain the sense

many

which Freud gives to the dream as a fragment of the repressed of the infantile psyche.

life

In the dream the infantile phantasy activity, together with objects, continues to

dream

now

discloses itself

a period, in the

life

The analogy

live.

The myth

at a stroke.

comparison

easy to show.

is

use of in the

"

An

The

"

Traumdeutung

we may

authority for this

expression, which Freud makes

Freud des-

illustrates this well.

ignates the period of childhood, which tinctly, as

springs from

of a people, long gone by, which

designate as the childhood of the race.

its

of the myth with the

we remember

only indis-

the prehistoric time in the history of the individual.

Although our reminiscences of that time are very indefinite, still they have not passed by without leaving impressions behind.

The wishes best

that lay in our heart at that time

remember

in

and which we

at

an imperfect way, are not wholly effaced, but to live in our dream phantasies. All

only repressed and continue this takes place also in the

toric times of the race,

myths.

They

originate in the prehis-

and have come down

to us

from the

indefi-

They contain memory rests from their childhood. Can the wish- fulfillment theory of dreams also be transferred to

nite traditions.

myths ? I

maintain this and formulate

my

Freud's teachings in regard to dreams, as

fragment of the repressed It

life

harmony with follows The myth is a

view, in

:

of the infantile psyche of the race.

contains (in disguised form) the wishes of the childhood of

the race.

We

have already found important evidence for " " comparing certain myths with typical dreams.

this

We

view by

saw

that

INFANTILISM IN INDIVIDUAL AND FOLK PSYCHOLOCY in the

in certain

CEdipus saga, as

found expression.

From

37

dreams, the infantile sexuality

the sexual transference of the libido of

mother arose wishes which as with many others Education is nothing but a availed themselves of repression. the son on to the

forced, systematic repression of inborn tendencies.

In the youth of a race,

when

vail,

when more

natural relations

the conventions have not yet

assumed

still

pre-

forms,

rigid

every tendency could be realized. At a later time they were suppressed by a process which we can designate in the individual as repression.

But they do not

die out wholly but are retained in

the myths. This process, for which I might propose the name of " mass repression," is the reason the people no longer understand the original meaning of their myths quite as

stand our dreams without some explanation.

we can

not under-

25

appears that a people whose myths are concerned with its earliest childhood express in them such wishes as they have been It

accustomed to repress most strongly. description of Paradise!

Let us consider the

Freud has aptly characterized

it

biblical

:" Para-

nothing but the mass phantasy of the childhood of the Genesis relates of Adam and Eve, with special individuals."

dise

is

We

know emphasis, that they were naked and were not ashamed. that the custom of the Jews rigidly required the clothing of the body.

The

infraction of this custom

sured in the biblical stories.

We

was always

especially cen-

find again, in a typical dream,

a parallel to the mass phantasy of the nakedness of the first man. all occasionally dream that we are going about in very defi-

We

moving about among people, who, however, of our state. The affect of anxiety which accom-

cient clothing, even

take no notice

inpanies this dream corresponds to the strong repression of the Freud has fantile wish to show ourselves naked before others. 26 That a people no longer understands its own myths can not be due to their having taken them over partly from other peoples. They could

only have taken them over because they them. These, however, were just the ones alter myths they take over they must then of the alteration; this is, however, not the ;

found their own complexes

in

Besides each people at least understand the meaning repressed. case.

DREAMS AND MYTHS

38

brought a great amount of evidence to show that

we

in this

are dealing with an infantile nakedness phantasy ("

deutung,"

S.

166

He

f.).

dream

Traum-

recalls in this connection, that children

take great pleasure in showing themselves naked before other chil-

There are people,

dren or adults or exhibiting before themselves. in

whom

these infantile adnexa of the sex instinct are retained in

abnormal strength and the normal

activity is fully pressed aside:

they are the exhibitionists.

The very rigorous ethics of the Jews in regard to the sexual relation demanded that the mass phantasy of nakedness be transThe Greeks, who were ferred to the earliest childhood of man. ashamed of nakedness in a much narrower sense, did not need to go back so far. Freud has shown that the saga of Odysseus and Nausicaa deals with the same theme. He therefore puts it parallel to

the above-mentioned nakedness dreams.

The Greek Prometheus saga corresponds to the first man. As we saw, it is

of the creation of the

from

it

biblical story

differentiated

by the lack of one of the analogous ingredients of the It contains, on the contrary, the story of

nakedness phantasy. the stealing of

tasies

fire,

for

which the

biblical presentation offers

no

We

have now to discover what repressed mass phanor wishes find expression in the Greek anthropogeny, espe-

correlate.

cially also,

the fire

is.

of what significance, in this respect, the robbery of

we must

In order to attain this object

certain general characteristics of myths,

first

consider

and for the explanation

of these turn back again to Freud's theory of dreams.

Freud declares every dream to suppress all

to be egoistic.

The

our egoistic tendencies.

We

have to learn

majority, on social,

familiar, and other grounds, we must by preference repress. When now, as in dreams, the unconscious comes to expression,

the repressed emotions break through. fully disguise themselves

vented by the censor.

;

Surely they must care-

for their frank entrance

The egoism of

the

would be pre-

dream expresses

itself

INFANTILISM IN INDIVIDUAL AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY by the invariable appearance This the dreamer himself. that the

certainly not meant

dreamer always sees himself

of the dream process.

drama only

as

Very

in the

Then, however, he represents, This role falls to a person who

title role.

in

personage

The dreamer

the sense

dream as the center

has a characteristic, an occurrence, or something the dreamer.

in

often he follows, so to speak, the

an onlooker.

through the actor, the

of the dream of

in the central point is

39

in

common

with

himself with the principal

identifies

So the appearance is brought about dream also occupies the most

the dream.

that the principal personage of the

prominent place fication

signifies

"

in the

they

dream.

As a matter

are the

same

(Freud,

Traumdeutung,"

expressed

in the

—"

;

as

just

"

one another

But "just as" cannot be dream can only express

S. 216).

language of dreams

of fact the identi-

the

comparison by replacing a person or an object by an analogy. That the object of the dream a wish-fulfillment is likewise

—

—

throughout egoistic, we have often established in the discussions of Freud's explanations above. In the same sense are those other

we have

psychic structures egoistic which

dream.

would lead too

It

hysterical dream-states.

with

psychoses

throughout

The

delusional

egoistic.

The

placed parallel with the

far, at this point, to

relation

is,

The

under

central point of his delusional system.

all

He

psychosis

in

operation against him from

him out of the way, a detective single, righteous

person against

is

watching him. He is the one, the world of unrighteous-

He

has placed himself in So every delusion of persecution con-

tains implicitly a delusion of grandeur.

Psychiatry, in general,

cares to speak of delusions of grandeur only diose idea

is

expressed.

exposed to insorts which are

whom

ness and jealousy has declared war. opposition to the world.

also

His co-workers wish

all sides.

is

is

cimcumstances, the

trigues, injurious influences, persecutions of all

put

this for the

shows clearer in the chronic

formation.

patient

show

We would

when a

special gran-

do better to speak

in

a general

DREAMS AND MYTHS

40

sense of a grandiose complex.

When we

son relate his delusional system

we

listen to

an insane per-

are reminded by

structure

its

of the sagas of mythology, which have been constructed about

The

special figures. like a

which he celebrates his own greatness.

in

myth

delusional system of an insane person

insane persons

who

assert themselves to be

some

is

There are

particular, fa-

mous, historical person, perhaps Napoleon or Bismarck. Such a patient, who finds some analogy between himself and Napoleon, identifies himself with Napoleon without further ceremony

—

we

quite as

are wont to do in dreams.

expression for "just as" quite as the

we

further into detail

The psychoses have no dream. If we go a little

find a wealth of proofs for the correctness

Insane persons,

of this comparison.

for

example, commonly

refer their delusional ideas, especially their grandiose ideas, back to their childhood.

I refer especially to

the delusional ideas of

birth because they are of great interest for the further analysis

of the Prometheus saga. psychiatrist.

name he

A

Cases of this sort are known to every

whose

patient asserts, perhaps, that the people

bears are not his true parents

the son of a princely person, there

is

;

he

is,

as a matter of fact

a mysterious reason

why he

should be put aside and on that account he was given over,

a child, to be cared for by his the fiction that he

is

"

parents."

when

His enemies maintain

of low birth in order to suppress his just

claim to the crown or great wealth.

This delusion of birth reminds us again of the infantile day

which the boy is a prince or king, and through his The wish victories casts the fame of everybody else in the shade. the to become something great is satisfied by phantasy of royal

dreams

in

For

descent.

in the childish

no other reason than that he of

all

the world.

the child

is

appears to

to

me

The

phantasy a prince is

is

predestined, for

a prince, to arouse the admiration

object of desire of the mental stirrings of

become great

—

in the

double sense of the word.

It

that whoever, as adult, always succeeds or imagines

INFANTILISM IN INDIVIDUAL AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY

41

himself to succeed has born a grandiose complex in his breast

The phantasies, which he invented in his youth The complex, however, in whose service these

in his childhood.

he forgets

later.

phantasies stand, does not die before the man.

advanced age, his ambitions as well,

This grandiose complex

in the

"

the

same way as

leaving traces, as

Also

vidual.

in

sees, in his

is

acti.

peculiar to the childhood of a race

to the childhood of the individual

period of a race

we have

it

myths an

also absent in myths.

;

also

does not vanish without

also been able to establish for the indi-

The

identification takes place.

race

"Just as"

with the principal figure of the myth.

identifies itself is

"

historical

he

transfer their wish-fulfillment back to child-

commonly

hood and become laudator temporis quite in

If

unfulfilled, then, the mentally sound

26

Every race has associated the beginning of their existence with a myth, which reminds us in a surprising way of the delusions of descent of the insane. Every race will descend from its god head, " " be created by him. Creation is nothing but procreation di-

This appears with wonderful clearness

vested of the sexual.

from Kuhn's interpretation of the Prometheus "creates" the man; he borer, generator

and

from the Vedas of

Agni and derived

So man deduces

he himself created, from

world-ash, from which the the northern sagas in

same time the

We

fire-god.

who were

their descent

is

fire

fire,

his descent

from

came

to him.

the ancestor of the

What unworthy

fire

!

mean

from the gods, from the

that he gave to god,

human

Askr, the ash,

successors are our insane

in

So man,

species.

the early times, projected his grandiose complex

heavens.

learn

in the ser-

these priestly sects (Angirasen, Bhrgu, etc.)

either fire or flame.

whom

however,

at the

Prometheus

saga.

search his history, the

different sects of priests

vice of the fire-god

The names of

is,

we

if

into

who

the

are sat-

29

Steinthal (" Die Saga von Samson," Zeitschrift fiir Volkerpsychol. und Sprachwissenschaft, Bd. 2, 1862) declares, that the word gleichwie (just as) has brought about the greatest revolution in the mental develop-

ment of mankind.

DREAMS AND MYTHS

42

we ourin our we do the same childhood selves, things phantasies The Prometheus saga is also rich in examples of identification. isfied

with descent from a great person of this earth, and

!

only necessary to recall the identification of borer, lightning

It is

and man. the god

If is

So

head.

man

is

it is

generated by god then

Man

human.

in the older

is

he, also, godly or

himself then with the god-

identifies

forms of the Prometheus saga; it is has been set in place of procreation.

in later times that creation

only

The

old testament story of creation

exception.

only apparently an

is

man surely does not decreates man after his image

In the story of Genesis the

scend from his divine creator.

God

;

here in the manifest content of the story a similarity occurs in place of an identification. the patriarchs.

The

The

descent of Israel

is

derived from

researches of comparative mythology have

disclosed, however, that the patriarchs are the changed forms of

a heathen

god world.

divine causes.

Now The

So

Israel originally derived its descent

This view must adjust

itself later to

by monotheism.

the old family gods appear in the service of the single god.

national pride

must be

satisfied

by bringing the patriarch

a specially close relation with their god. relations with them, speaks to

God appears

god

is

in personal

them and makes agreements with

them, which are binding on their descendants again that their

into

very near.

;

these feel therefore

VI

The Effect

We While

of the Censor in Dreams and Myths. Work of Condensation

have come to know already of the idea of the censor. in the

removed,

still

dream the practiced repression of consciousness is the unfettered wishes are prevented from open ex-

The censor does not permit

pression.

the repressed idea expres-

sion by clear, unequivocal words, but compels

strange dress.

dream content latent

The

By means of the dream is

to appear in a

it

distortion the true (latent)

transposed into the manifest content.

dream thoughts already formed

in the

The

state are, as

waking Freud has shown, on the way to becoming unconscious thought activities. The dream makes no new thoughts, it moulds over those formed in the waking state according to the

demands of the

Freud distinguishes four ways in which this work is accomplished. We have now to prove whether similar relations censor.

exist in myths,

whether a censor works here also and whether the

myth makes use of the same means of presentation for evasion as the dream. We can here also use the Prometheus saga as a paradigm, but will draw upon other myths at certain places in the compass of our consideration.

Of first

"

the various processes of the

condensation."

We have

dream work

already learned to

let

us consider

know

it

in the

Prometheus saga but are then no nearer its understanding. Its surprise is, that the Prometheus saga, which appears so simple at first

few words gives expression to a great number The latter form, as we have already seen, the latent

glance, in

of ideas.

its

content of the myth.

One element

of the manifest dream content

very commonly contains not one but several dream thoughts. relation

is

quite similar in myths. 43

If the

The

few words of the saga

DREAMS AND MYTHS

44 are to contain

all

these thoughts, as Kuhn's "

each word, so to say, must be the dream.

Dream

work has shown

overdetermined," quite as

interpretation

is

it is

us,

in

able to bring proof that a

person appearing in the dream may represent several related realities. For example, it is not rare that a dream person may have the face of one person

known

to the

dreamer and the

rest of the

body of another acquaintance. The dreamer thus brings these two persons in relation to one another probably because they accord in some important point.

Every occurrence of the dream In dream analysis we

can likewise be numerously determined.

must therefore always take note of ambiguity; each word of the dream story may hold a double or more numerous meaning.

The elements of

the myth, like the elements of the dream, are

also overdetermined.

The Greek Prometheus

to a very active process of condensation.

metheus, as

we have found by

analysis,

is

saga owes

The form

its

form

of Pro-

condensed from three

According to the first he is the fire god, according to the second he is the fire, according to the third he is man. From

views.

these ideas the saga of the robbery of the fire

was condensed.

Steinthal 27 has put together, with great pregnancy, this extremely

important conclusion of Kuhn's analysis: "After the

man

down from heaven he

has come

brings himself as

god himself, as god or as a divine element on the stows himself as an element

To one who

is

in

fire

god as

man

earth,

or as

and be-

himself as mortal."

accustomed to analyze dreams with the help of

Freud's method the inner relationship of dreams and myths, on the basis of the

common

process of condensation, will be apparent.

In apparently insignificant details of the myth he will distinguish condensations, quite analogous to what he has already met in

Kuhn's analysis brings out for nearly every element of the Prometheus saga, for every single symbol, the proof of muldreams.

tiple determinations.

" Seite

"

Steinthal, 9.

I

only

call attention to

Die Prometheussaga

in

ihrer

how, for example,

urspriinglichen

Gestalt,"

EFFECT OF THE CENSOR IN DREAMS AND MYTHS in

heavenly bird the most varied symbolic

the

45

functions

are

condensed.

The strange neologisms of

dream have

the

of condensation for their occurrence.

deutung," S.

202

f.,

ples of this kind

to tnank the

work

Freud gives ("Traumexam-

as well as in other places) interesting

as

well

The

as their interpretation.

insane

furnish examples of neologisms of a quite similar kind. 28

The "

normal man also does the same thing while awake when he misspeaks." Examples of this can be found especially in Freud's " Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens." I will quote only an exthere. 29

ample from those that can be found "

A

said to his sister

(Lippschaft).'

'

I

:

have quite

She answered

do not greet her any more.'

D., I fine

young man

She intended

to say

fallen out with ' :

relative

Altogether a (Sippschaft)

but she crowded together two different things in this error of speech, that her brother had

begun a

flirtation

with the daughter

of this family, and this called up that she had recently been en-

gaged

in a serious, illicit love affair (Liebschaft)."

The same word condensations individual's mistakes, in dreams,

the insane

is

that

we meet with

and also

in

(Reiben)

fire

according to another idea he steals (raubt) the it

to man.

Pramantha.

made

.

in

.

.

man;

order to

in the

name

signifies the "bringer forth" (Hervor-

producing by rubbing (Reiben), and at the This condensation was (fire) robber (Raubende).

reibende), that

same time the

Pramantha

and

fire,

These two views are condensed

Pramantha

normal

the neologisms of

offered us in the Prometheus saga.

(= Prometheus) produces by rubbing bring

in the

is,

possible through the similarity in

sound of the substantive

matha (=the male genitals, compare the Latin mentula) and the verbal root math (=take, rob). There is still the double sense of Reiben (to rub) to be noted. 28 29

"

Jung, Psychologie der Dementia praecox," Halle, 1907. Zweite Auflage, 1907, Seite 30 f .

VII Displacement and Secondary Elaboration in Dreams and

Myths Condensation explains,

number of

A

in the

myth

as in the dream, a great

differences between the latent

and manifest content.

second method, through which the unconscious leads to dream called

is

distortion,

dream work

the

which

will

it

I

will consider

From

grounds,

with displacement a

dream work, " secondary

third element of the

and myths

This element of

displacement."

also finds its analogy in myths.

soon be evident,

When we

"

by Freud

elaboration."

began our consideration of the analogies of dreams was incumbent upon us to first show the authority

We

for such a procedure.

could easily dispose of two objections

we left preliminarily unsettled. To it we must now The myth, one may object, according to the results

while a third

turn back.

of recent investigations, has gone through significant changes, before

it

took the form, in which

it

has come to us, while the

dream appears to be a very fugitive structure born only for the That is only apparently so. The dream content is, as

moment.

a matter of

fact, likewise

pare the life period of

dreams and myths have

saw

a long time in preparation.

man

with that of the race

If

we

we comfind that

their roots in the prehistoric time.

We

dream were already formed in the us add The development of the dream is

that the elements of the

waking

Now

state.

let

:

not closed with the awaking of the dreamer.

The concurrence

of the ideas and wishes of the dream with the censor continues. If

we

seek to

are telling

changes, in

it

call

a dream back to memory, especially

when we

to another person, the censor undertakes additional

order to

make

the

dream 46

distortion

more complete.

DISPLACEMENT AND SECONDARY ELABORATION This

what Freud

"

47

30

It is only secondary elaboration." a continuation of the work of displacement of the dream. Both is

processes are of the

calls

same nature and serve the same purpose. Those elements

displace content and affect of the dream.

They

which possess prime significance

more secondary dent

is

in the

dream thoughts play a

dream, while some unimportant inci-

role in the

treated with exaggerated importance. Thus there comes Freud expresses it, a " transvaluation of all values " in

about, as

the

dream.

pushed

The

insignificant

becomes instead the

significant

and the affect-tone bound

into the focal point of interest,

up with the dream thoughts is displaced from the significant to Both repeat themselves once again in secondary

the insignificant. elaboration.

It is

most quickly and

exactly the critical places of the

dream

whereby their reproduction is rendered difficult. The affect suffers once again thereby the former similar modification.

When

— —produces further dreams. same wish

reach

in the

in a subsequent night

first,

they only draw within their

expression, other symbols,

A strong complex may

of a recurring dream.

remember

same or

These further dreams tend towards

fulfillment as the

new means of

tions.

also

a complex of strong emotional value lays at the bottom

of a dream, that complex

the

that

definitely relapse into repression after waking,

express

itself

In this respect

it

and new

associa-

for years in the form is

only necessary to

the previously detailed treatment of the typical dreams,

for example the typical infantile nakedness dream. typical

dream

is

the

means of

of dreams to that of myths.

same psychological process an individual through the

transition

Again the from the consideration

Mutatis mutandis

we

recognize the

same dream accompanies periods of his life and be-

in that the

different

comes thereby gradually changed by the taking up of new 80

ele-

1 note here only those expressions of secondary elaboration, which appear on trying to reproduce the dream; these are of special significance for comparison with myths. As to the other results of secondary elaboration, which already during the dream influence its form, I will not discuss them.

DREAMS AND MYTHS

48 merits,

and that a myth

suffers gradual modifications in the dif-

ferent life periods of a race.

Now

the period of time in which a

infinitely

greater than

myth develops

from a person whose dream we are

To

about doubtful points. extraordinarily

can obtain,

interpreting,

information

analyze a myth, on the contrary,

because

difficult,

naturally

we

Further

for a dream.

is

we

is

are required to penetrate

a psychological structure by comparison and combination, that originated thousands of years before. After so long a period of time

it

is

only in a few especially favorable cases that

sible to ascertain,

what share

in the

it

is

pos-

displacement work was due

which the myth was fixed, and what to later times, was passed by word of mouth from generation to New generations had new views. So where a trans-

to the time in

which

in

it

generation.

mittal did not correspond to " "

a

secondary elaboration

get

what a wide reaching

would

call for

myths, an elaboration. after of the

We

leave

should also not for-

myths of neighboring peoFor all these reasons

racial myths.

doing violence to the facts

artificial I

views, that generation undertook

influence the

ple have on the transmittal of it

its

of the myth.

if

we

undertook, in

separation of diplacement and it

at times uncertain,

work of displacement

in myths,

when

I

whether

ing with a primary or a secondary displacement.

secondary

speak hereI

am

deal-

VIII

The Effect

of Displacement in the Sagas of Prometheus, Moses, and Samson

We

have already repeatedly met with the effects of displacement in myths without having especially devoted our attention

The Greek Prometheus saga work of displacement. As we have to

it.

searches, this

myth

bears clear traces of the learned from Kuhn's re-

reaches back to a time in which the natural

forces were not yet worshiped in the

Agni and Matharichvan came sonification of the gods.

the fire-boring-out god,

The former was

the fire god

;

the latter

who brought Agni back when

The two

hidden himself.

form of man-like gods.

into existence with the gradual per-

he had

figures are not separated originally;

Matharichvan appears rather as another name for Agni and separates itself later from him as an independent being. Matharichvan, to

was then properly the fire-robber.

whom

the Greek Prometheus corresponds,

In the Greek myth he became

the fire-bringer.

He

took the

from heaven

fire

to

man

the will of the gods and suffered punishment for doing

metheus must thus be subordinated lies

to the will of

the most important displacement of the saga.

myth, according to

against

it.

Pro-

Zeus; therein

The

original

— Prometheus—brought

which Matharichvan

Agni back, lacks the affect tone in the way of censure for this undertaking. The Greek version of the myth employs here an affect displacement.

who sinned against the gods, of man who often enough has

Prometheus,

becomes thus the representation

Through this transsense of the name Prometheus

rebelled against the council of the gods.

formation of the saga the original

— Pramantha—was

lost.

him the generator, the

The

ancient,

naive times had called

This view disappeared by re-

borer. 49

DREAMS AND MYTHS

50

pression until the people had fully forgotten the meaning of the

The meaning was

names.

further modified and

still

"

interpreted as

Had

forethought."

now he

is

he not brought his creatures

and so honestly won such a name! The transformation of the name Pramantha into Prometheus and the associated change fire

of meaning offers us a very instructive example of displacement.

The

process of displacement in the Prometheus saga gains

considerable in interest

we

if

turn our attention to that portion

Kuhn

of Kuhn's works not hitherto considered. side of the

myth

of the origin of

of the origin of the nectar.

I

fire

treats along-

the one closely related to

cannot go into the

common

it

origin

of these myths here without departing too much from the theme. I will be satisfied therefore with one reference, that among other things has given occasion for the

common

and rain from the storm clouds, and reduced

myth

to a

common

Our

origin.

origin of lightning fire

interest here

is

and nectar

in the

mostly a result of

comparative mythology: That the Greek (and Indo-germanic) saga of Prometheus corresponds to the Moses of the Bible.

we compare

the law-bringer

Moses with the

If

fire-bringer Pro-

metheus on the basis of the Old Testament accounts and the presentation of ^Eschylus the two figures certainly appear to have in

little

very

common.

The

story of

Moses

carries,

however, as

well as that of Prometheus, the traces of a considerable displace-

ment.

We

from the

must probably

biblical.

The

differentiate the old mythical

biblical

Moses ascends,

—

like

Moses

Prometheus,

Amidst heaven and brings the laws down as he did the fire. thunder and lightning he ascends; here the storm returns. It is

to

probably also not an accident that the law was called "fiery." In general

we

see

Moses

as the true servant of this one

God;

while Prometheus comes in conflict with the gods through the

robbery of the

fire,

Moses

so that here a conflict

against

God

is

found

in

receives the law

is

excluded.

another place.

from the hand of God

The The

rebellion of

figure in the

Moses heathen

EFFECT OF DISPLACEMENT IN SAGAS

myths corresponding clouds by means of

Moses brings Moses lightning.

with the

identified

is

analogue of the lightning or the borer of the heathen myth

numerous

the rod, this always recurring symbol in

with

:

With

sagas.

rod he struck water from the rock in the wilderness

this

against

the

command

Moses was punished

of

Lord

the

(IV

Mos.,

He was

for disobedience:

water, but he struck on the rock and called ing to the

command

impatience rent

him

of

Kap.

it

—

20).

not allowed to

Moses, therefore, did not

enter the promised land.

I

water from the

forth

to

5

forth.

steal

the

Accord-

God he should have spoken to the rock; rock. The displacement is

to strike the

here extremely far reaching: It a simple man, a servant of

God

is

not enough that Moses was

— he

did not even once commit

a robbery, like Prometheus, but called forth the promised water And so Moses's guilt is displaced to a in an over-hasty manner. relatively insignificant sin.

At

same time God's power

the

is

exalted in that he will not allow even a relatively insignificant sin to

go unpunished.

Here then

is

opened

to us

origin of certain pathological

an interesting perspective on the ideas.

We

process of displacement, called by Freud genesis of compulsive ideas.

According

"

find a quite

similar

transposition," in the

to Freud's investigations

compulsive ideas have their root in self reproaches of the patient,

which

relate to forbidden sexual activity.

The

patient tries to

compensate by over-correction in other territories for what he, according to his view, has done that was sexually sinful, as

if

he

had, as a matter of fact, in this indifferent territory, permitted

himself to be at fault. 31 I

must refer

briefly to a nearly related process in the psychoses

(dementia praecox, melancholia).

32

The

delusions of sin of these

patients can often be traced to self-reproaches of a sexual nature. 51 1 cannot, in this place, go into Freud's teachings on this point and " kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre." refer to the Sammlung " 32 Abraham, Das Erleiden sexueller Traumen," etc., 1907.

DREAMS AND MYTHS

52

Such patients sometimes displace the

from some

feeling of guilt

sexual reminiscence onto any insignificant fault of another kind.

They

means

are by no

to be dissuaded

from these

ideas.

we

If

turn to the Freudian view of these conditions the ground for the

conduct of such patients

is

evident.

desire to put aside the

They

feeling of guilt.

Displacements, as shown in the story of Moses, the

Old Testament

in great

We

number.

we meet

find even there

in

many

original heathen myths, which, as the race went more and more over to monotheism, were used for the service of the new religion

and for

this

purpose had to suffer substantial displacement.

the transition to

monotheism was is testified

to

That

effected only very gradually all

and

the historical books of the

by great struggles by Old Testament. The gods or god-like beings of the old myths must come down from their high pedestal, must be satisfied with the role of men, and subordinate themselves to the one god.

In some cases this displacement went so far, that the one-time

god became as man a specially faithful follower, the chosen of The figures of the patriarchs and of Moses are the one god. products of this displacement process. latter the

saga of Samson lends

For the study of the

itself especially well.

We

pos-

sess a treatise on this subject from the master hand of H. Stein33 I give here only some of its principal features because it thal. leads to similar results as the analysis of the Prometheus saga.

Samson, as can be seen from the etymology of his name, is the sun god of the old Semitic heathendom and corresponds to Hercules of the Indo-germanic saga.

or -heros

;

number of important hair like Apollo.

ing giving sun

;

He

in the

things. is

is

also really the sun

Samson

"

Steinthal,

Sfachwiss., Bd.

is

Samson

god in a

the sun god, with long

the warming, generating god, the bless-

summer he

So winter and night are naturally M

He

the Hercules saga resembles that of

reaches the height of his power. his adversaries

;

they find their

Die Sage von Samson," Zeitschr. fur Volkerpsychol. und

2, 1862.

EFFECT OF DISPLACEMENT IN SAGAS

moon

personification in the

sun

sets,

When

53

in the

evening the then according to one of the ideas of the sun god held goddess.

by many peoples, he flees before the pursuing moon goddess. Although he reaches his greatest strength in summer, he cannot enjoy

for

it;

from the

solstice

he loses

it

He

again.

is

subdued

by the night and the winter goddess as a strong man is by a wife. Samson, the generating sun god, appears in the representation of the

Book of Judges, weak

probable that Delilah

Samson

goddess. is

is

as

compared

to his wife.

a transformation ot the night

loses his strength

the sun god loses his rays.

piration of winter gets back

when he

However, its

time to be sure.

very

loses his hair; that

as the sun, after the ex-

strength, so the hair of

again, so that his strength again returns

grows

It is

and winter

;

Samson

only for a short

For he sought death and found it at the feast honor of their god,

that his enemies, the Philistines, celebrated in

Dagon.

Dagon, however,

the deserts, in the

is

the unfruitful god of the seas and

myth opposed

to the

sun god and therefore an

unfriendly power.

Samson, the hero and the sun god, kills himself. That is a In the feature, which we also find again in the related myths. biblical

story the suicide of

Samson

besides occurring at the

feast of

Dagon occurs still a second time, certainly in a hardly recognizable form. The sun god unites within himself two op-

He

posed tendencies.

is,

moting god, on the other

consuming god. of the lion strength.

;

As

on the one

side, the

warming,

life

pro-

side, the burning, unhappiness causing,

the latter he

is

represented by the symbol

as a lion the sun reaches in

As Agni and Matarichvan

summer

originally

its

greatest

were a single

became forces opposed to one another, so also the consuming heat of the sun under the symbol of the lion comes to be split off from the blessing bringing sun god. Sam-

being, but later

—

—

son's first heroic deed, Hercules' first task,

was the vanquishing

The good sun god

consuming god as a

of a lion

lion.

and therefore

killed the

killed himself.

DREAMS AND MYTHS

54

An

exceedingly distorting displacement has produced from the sun god the hero Samson consecrated by God. Only a few,

of themselves alone not understandable remains of his original being

still

adhere to him

:

the strength, which reposes in the hair,

woman, the end by suicide. It was that Samson became, in the later saga,

the weakness as against the

because of the long hair

the Nazarite, the beloved of God,

who

freed his people from

probably the identity of Samson and Hercules with the Phonecian Meleager, who was a tutelar god of his people.

Here

bondage.

How

is

the sun god of the heathen times comes to be the god-or-

dained hero

is

not cleared up in

all its details

a transformation did take place, demonstrate. turies

and

many

;

that,

however, such

sources of information

had fought with the Philistines for cenher freedom through these conflicts. The old

Israel

lost

who

formerly as the god of fruitfulness, and as an enemy of consuming heat, represented a wish of the race as fulwish to fulfillfilled, must now as a national hero bring another

sun god,

ment.

Like Moses he came to the service of the one

was chosen by God

to serve his people.

He

God and

does not appear as

a leader but always alone as the sun wanders alone in the heavens. He alone fought the Philistines with the jaw bone of an ass-

even when blinded he opposes himself to thousands of Philistines

and takes them with him

in death.

IX

The Means After

of Representation of the

we have found

again, in myths, the

Myth

work of condensa-

and displacement of dreams, there remains still another aspect of the dream work in which to seek for its analogy in tion

Not

myths. able

all

the same

ideas are, for the dream, immediately represent-

Surely there exists a difference: the dream dramatizes, while the myth bears the form of an ;

is

true for the myth.

Notwithstanding, both are obliged to have the same re-

epic.

The

gard for the technical representability of their material.

dream, for example, must find a figurative representation for the abstract. With this object turns of speech will, with preference, be taken

literally.

In one of the dreams reported by Freud, the

dreamer, for example, wishes to express that a musician with

whom

she was in love towered (turmhoch) above

all

the others.

In the dream she saw him in the concert hall standing on a

tower (Turme) and directing from that point. The logical relations of our speech are also not representable as such, in the

We

have already learned how the dream represents the very important relation "just as" by means of identification, and dream.

that in relation

myths the same procedure " :

" either— or

One method

is,

is

is

traceable.

expressed in various ways in the dream.

for example, the arranging in a row, of the differ-

ent possibilities, that

is,

each

is

figuratively represented

according to choice, placed beside the other. will briefly call attention to.

dreams the

different

The dreams of one

The dreamer

possibilities

that a series of

One

and then,

other

way

I

expresses in different

characterized by either

—

or.

night serve, according to experience, the same

wish-fulfillment; according to

me

Another such

dreams

my own

in the 55

experience

it

appears to

same night not seldom oppose

DREAMS AND MYTHS

56 to

so correspond with

was

an either—

A

especially clear.

and

possibilities of wish-fulfillment

one another the different

In one case this explanation

or.

woman, who

a short time before her

marriage, was in fear of opposition from different quarters, re-

me

lated to

was

able,

dreams which

five

all

occurred the same night.

I

by virtue of an exact knowledge of her life, to establish, dreams all the different future possibilities were

that in the five

The dreamer,

realized.

each dream concealed her betrothed

in

behind another person of her acquaintance

dreams was

in a

The

corresponding position.

infantile material

was very

who

one of the

in

rich utilization of

Quite in the same way

interesting.

Races also represent the same races proceed with their myths. wish in different myths. We learn here one of the causes for the If a wish is esperelationship in the contents of many myths. cially

strong

it

representation takes a it

from a

Each

finds expression in different myths.

new

position in reference to

One need

different side.

it,

single

approaches

only refer to the two accounts

of creation that run side by side in the Bible.

A

close relationship

between two elements of the dream

commonly expressed by both elements (or

their symbols) being

placed close together in the manifest content.

In the Prometheus saga

thing in myths.

near by the disc or the wheel

;

in

Genesis

is

We

see the

same

we find the borer always we find the serpent and

The Prometheus saga shows how one person can be concealed in

the apple quite as near one another.

us further, very beautifully, several

symbols

:

Prometheus

is

borer and lightning.

tremely interesting example of this kind

son saga.

Samson

The

The

suicide of the sun-god

we have met Samson

is

An

in the

ex-

Sam-

represented by

as sun-hero killing the sun-lion.

greatest claim

is

made on

the avoidance of the censor. bolic clothing.

the technic of presentation by

We have already spoken of the sym-

In the saga of the descent of the

fire

we

find

symbolic presentations especially for the male organ of generation

THE MEANS OF REPRESENTATION OF THE MYTH and for the function of generation.

We

57

are reminded by

of

it

dream symbolism. The borer, rod, or similar instrument is a common symbol in dreams as the representative of the male sexual organs.

The dreams

man, are plainly wish tree,

of

women,

fulfilling.

which they are stabbed by a In other dreams a sword, or a

in

or other plant of appropriate form, appears as a symbol of

the male.

The feminine sun's disc or

its

correlate

is

also

formed

in the saga.

rim, or the cloud in the hollow of

It is

which moves

Pramantha, or the thunder-bolt stirred up by the lightning; also obviously the cave in which Agni has hidden. Fire appears in three forms in the Prometheus saga enly fire

fire,

as earthly

fire,

and as the

very often signifies the sexual

fire

of

the generating god so probably the love fire

sidered as a fourth component.

life.

fire, love.

the

:

it

is

as heav-

In the dream

As Prometheus

may come

is

to be con-

X Wish-Fulfillment in the Prometheus Saga After having convinced ourselves that the dream censor and the

dream work

find their complete analogy in myths, let us turn

back to the question of wish-fulfilling in the Prometheus saga. It is of importance to discover what is hidden behind the symbolic appear that on

It will

clothing.

this track of

our inquiry we can

not do without the direction of Freud's procedure in the interpretation of dreams.

The Greeks themselves made an experiment in this direction. The content of the saga had become for them unintelligible; the name of

the hero easily permitted a

could understand something by thought." sion be

— permissible use very

actual wish of

ing being. lies,

So Pramantha became " Fore-

it.

Such a semi-divine

variation so that one

little

figure one could

all

time

In the explanation of the

:

the expres-

name

meaning of the myth

is

an

a wish for a care-tak"

"

Forethought

there

We

know, howand that the secondary,

without doubt, the expression of a wish.

ever, that this

if

Its existence sets forth

well.

mankind through

—

symbolism of the Prometheus saga does not at all fit it. We are reminded of quite analogous relations in dream psychology. Not seldom, quite on the surface of a dream, a wish is distinguishable at

first

acknowledge ticated wish

the

!

glance.

The dreamer,

wish as a

this

One

fact.

in such

It is

cases,

is

ready to

always a wholly unsophis-

asks himself then, what object, in such a case,

dream work accomplishes, when the wish, for the

which the dream work should serve,

lies

veiling of

open as day.

If

we

now apply an exact analysis to the dream, it will be noted, that behind the actual wish a repressed wish is hidden, which shows an analogy with

it.

The

actual wish constructs, in a manner, the 58

WISH-FULFILLMENT IN THE PROMETHEUS SAGA outer layer of the dream

many

cases there

dream (as

the

under

;

work of

this, however, the

this lies a repressed wish. is

interpretation

psychoses)

With In

not concluded.

This deepest layer in

certainly a third layer.

is

in the

59

always constructed from the

is

reminiscences of infantile wishes.

Such a

We

stratification

know from Kuhn's

myth represents an

one can establish

Prometheus

in the

saga.

investigations, that the oldest layer of the

identification of

man

with

fire,

the origin of

man with the origin of fire. The second layer corresponds to a In this layer of the later view into which entered personal gods. myth the is

fire-god

begotten.

is

at the

In the third,

same time man-god, by whom the man the latest layer Pramantha is no longer

the procreator but the creator of

man and

his

"

forethought."

The wish phantasy contained in the last layer, which is quite After the analogy of dreams clear, we have already considered.

we may expect that the two older layers also embody a wish. The wish of the second layer we know already. Man derives his origin

He ilar

from a divine being and consequently is himself divine. with Pramantha. We can show that a sim-

identifies himself

tendency expresses

itself

tasies of the individual, which

To

a grandiose complex.

therein as in the childhood phan-

we

derived from the existence of

be more precise, the wish of the sec-

ond layer would be: We would like to originate from a divine being and be ourselves divine each of us is a Pramantha. I ;

phantasy has an evident sexual component. If the sexual, in the second layer, constructs a relatively subordinate component, we however find in the deepest layer a

show from

this that this

clearly sexual content, a plain wish-fulfilling in the sexual sphere.

The second

layer

is

differentiated

from the

oldest by a far ad-

vanced sexual repression.

The symbolism

of the deepest layer

gives expression to a grandiose complex. erative

power with the

is

evidently sexual;

Man

identifies his

ability of the borer to produce

it

gen-

fire in

the

DREAMS AND MYTHS

60 wooden

The

ning.

—the

with the effects of the borer of heaven

disc,

oldest

form of the Prometheus saga

human power

of the

We have

taken the pains to show that the sexuality forms the

an old and widely

It is

diffused error that in respect to sex the child

am

light-

an apotheosis

of generation.

most inner nucleus of the being of man. I

is

wholly indifferent.

is

not thinking here, naturally of cases of abnormally early

sexual maturity.

Especially

34 researches through Freud's

are forced to conclude that there

is

we

a sexual activation already

which surely is not consciously that to the child and which must be differentiated from the sexual activity in early childhood,

The

awakened very early in children to exhibit themselves, with which is bound up the curiosity in reference to the sex differences and procreation. of the mature, healthy individual.

Every from?

—some

child

What

his phantasy.

earlier,

some

later

desire

—asks:

is

Where

the child learns in this consideration

The

did is

I

come

food for

interest in the sexual processes produces in

An

the growing child a fixation of attention like nothing else.

unexpectedly received explanation has not infrequently resulted in violent emotional disturbances. So the first physiological signs

of sexual maturity, which the child notices forth anxiety

itself,

not rarely

calls

and aversion.

We

have already repeatedly seen pathological phantasy formations grow out of infantile phantasies. We also found characteristic analogies

The

between these pathological products and myths.

phantasies growing out of the childhood desire to

oneself and curiosity the physician meets quite commonly,

show if

he

penetrates the psychic life of neurotic and psychopathic persons

by means of the psychoanalytic process.

I refer, in this

consider-

35 ation, especially to Freud's analysis of a case of paranoid psy-

Sexual curiosity is of extraordinary significance in the realm of the psychic phenomena of compulsion; this is especially

chosis.

34

"

Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie." ""Vgl. Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre,"

Seite 124.

WISH-FULFILLMENT IN THE PROMETHEUS SAGA

61

so for the compulsion to constantly inquire into the reasons for

Patients with this peculiar affection must busy them-

things.

selves, against their will

origin of

God and

over the reason for is

I

with transcendental questions such as the

of the world or they must rack their brains this

or that thing in the world being as

it

and not some other way. A case of my own observation, which will communicate here, will illustrate what significance the in-

fantile exhibitionistic

tendency in neurotically has for the explanation of this condition.

The

patient differentiates himself

appearances,

first

on

its

persons

two kinds of compulsive

the compulsion to pray, second the compulsion

to consider every object with the greatest care

ulate

afflicted

and then

origin, restoration, composition, etc.

He

to spec-

stated that

he had been subjected to this compulsion since his childhood.

Often for a shorter or longer time

it

remitted but always recurred.

upon numerous occasions, when he was a boy, tried to expose persons with whom he had shared the bedroom or the bed. His whole interest concentrated itself Analysis disclosed that he had,

on the sight of the genitals and the buttocks, on the origin of children as well as the preceding processes.

On

account of the

which he sought to satisfy this practically pathological curiosity, he passionately reproached himself and began to pray to God that he would allow him to become a good violent attempts by

man.

The prayer contained

he wrote

bits of

paper

full

the character of the compulsions;

of litanies and read them as often as

He

had great anxiety lest he omit a word. With the prayer developed at the same time the compulsive consideration of objects. It has come about, therefore, that the patient has set he could.

about the study of all possible indifferent objects in place of the consideration, considered as sinful, of certain bodily parts.

Therefore he

is

especially interested in the

and the process of

their origin.

Through

back side of objects on the origin

reflection

of indifferent objects he seeks to provide a counter-balance

DREAMS AND MYTHS

62

against the reflection on the origin of man.

The

becomes, as always happens in such cases,

What

indifferent ideas.

affect of anxiety

"

transposed

" 36

to

child in a high degiT^T

every growing boy in an abnormal degree, busies themselves with, is the same theme that in mythology is indicated by anthropogenesis.

and

this

The so

many

great incentive to

myth formation.

views are

uralistic

still

in

In an age, from which nat-

remote, procreation must appear like

This supposition

magic.

living being, offers

on that account, from interest of men and give a

mysteries, that these processes,

the beginning on, attract the special

where

new

creation of man, the origin of a

we

can give weighty support.

mythology, in miracles, etc., the

There can be no doubt (for reasons which

great role.

discuss in this place) that the

magic wand

representation of the male genitals.

rod boring in the wooden

of the Prometheus saga.

disc, is

A

Every-

magic wand

plays a

I

can not

signifies the symbolic

quite similar symbol, the

the nucleus of the oldest form

have, up to this point, not yet re-

I

ferred to a very remarkable characteristic of the Prometheus

a pure masculine saga.

saga: that

it

is

in

it

as well in the

appears

also symbolically.

The procreating man

form of a person (Pramantha) as

The woman

is

only represented by the symbol

of the wooden disc and in the saga

is

only casually mentioned.

We

had formerly reached the conclusion that the Prometheus saga, in its earliest form, was an apotheosis of the power of pro-

creation.

This view receives here a conclusive confirmation.

The Prometheus

had the tendency

to

proclaim the masculine power of procreation as a principle of

all

life.

That

is

saga, in

its

oldest form,

the sexual delusion of grandeur of

even to the present day. M "Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre,"

all

mankind

especially page 118.

XI

Myth

Analysis of the

of the Origin of Nectar

which we now rightly indicate closely bound up with the saga of the origin of the nectar of the gods. We have already referred to this but have not, up to this time, entered upon an analysis of this

The saga of

the origin of

as a saga of procreation,

From former

myth.

which stand

fire,

is

experiences

their tendencies.

we may

expect that two sagas

one another

in close relations to

will also agree in

For the analysis of the nectar myth Kuhn's

fundamental work serves us again as a guide. we certainly will have to travel our own path. Nectar was named amrita later

soma,

in the

in the oldest

Indian sources, in the

The

Zendavesta haoma.

In certain places

designations nectar

and ambrosia are generally known from the Greek mythology.

To

the nectar are ascribed various wonderful, mysterious effects

animates,

it

sponding

ambrosia

confers immortality.

it

inspires,

"

clearly expressed in " "

is

"

it

amrita

"

and

last attribute

in the etymologically corre-

also a similar

;

The

:

meaning

is

contained in

nectar."

So

far as our traditions reach

back

all

peoples manufacture in-

toxicating drinks, the use of which calls forth the well-known

Man

deceptive feelings. alted; at the

of

himself animated, inspired, ex-

feels

same time the drink gives him an increased

warmth and

stirs

up

his sexual desires.

The

bears always at the same time, an erotic character. calls forth fire in

of love.

Man

in a double sense:

Dionysus Drink thus

Warmth and

the fire

produces intoxicating drink by crushing certain

kinds of plants.

Of

man,

feeling

cult of

These appear

in

the myths as

soma

plants.

these plants the ash (mountain ash) especially interests us.

The same

tree, the

wood

of which served for the creation of 63

fire.

DREAMS AND MYTHS

64

A

was pressed from

juice

its

branches which was called soma.

Besides the earthly soma there

myth, a heavenly soma, and these two are identified with one another quite as we is

also, in the

have seen was the case with the earthly and the heavenly fire. On earth soma and fire are gotten from the ash. As according to the Prometheus saga the heavenly fire

is

kindled in the world-ash

soma comes from

(the cloud-tree) so likewise, the heavenly

world-ash.

ash (that

is

It is called forth

in the clouds).

the heavenly

by boring

The

earthly

soma of the heavenly

the branches of the ash, brought

with the

fire

saga

is

in the

ash. it

wood

soma

A

is

bird,

descended from

which nested

to the earth.

here quite striking.

As

in

The analogy

the heavenly fire

braces the heat of the sun and lightning, so also the heavenly is

the

of the world-

em-

soma

ambiguous; it is at the same time dew and rain and further comes to be the drink of the gods. The cloud-tree is in

still

certain

myths exactly described.

foot are springs which

branches

We

falls

the dew.

fall

to

Its roots are in the sea; at its

the earth as rain.

From

the

37

have established that

in the oldest

stratum of the Prome-

theus saga the breaking out of the earthly and heavenly fires

served only as symbolic representations of the process of procrea-

We may

with justice assume that the earthly and heavenly soma also serve as symbolic representations of a third element

tion.

unknown

that

is

still

near

it

has escaped Kuhn.

quite

to us.

We

Although the meaning lies have to pass by

will therefore

Kuhn's analysis in order that we may supply an explanation of the third and most important, because the original, significance of the soma.

"Another idea, found in the Indo-germanic myths, saw in the clouds a running horse from whose mane the dew ran to the earth. From this cloud-horse the bearer of the inspiring soma, grew out, in the Greek mythology, the winged-horse Pegasus. On the other hand, from the flying In the same way the saga clouds, the pursuing Erinnyes were formed. touches of wild men in the Germanic mythology. The idea that one cloud hunts another and seeks to catch it we find again in a modern painting Heuernte von Segantini. It is very remarkable that the phantasy of an artist, whose work embodies the idea of the unity of nature, should take the same direction as the phantasy of the race in prehistoric times.

—

ANALYSIS OF THE

The heavenly soma

MYTH OF THE is

ORIGIN OF NECTAR

produced by boring

The

through a symbolic act of procreation.

me

to

to lie near, the perception in the

Semen has

sentation of semen.

because propagating

which as dew and rain to understand

falls

—thus

conclusion seems

soma of a symbolic

repre-

a vivifying and immortalizing,

It fertilizes like

effect.

in the clouds

C$

upon the

earth.

the heavenly

We

are able

soma

now

the sagas of the origin of fire and of the

why

nectar of the gods are so closely related to each other.

The

procreative parts of the body and the semen can not be separated

from one another. This oldest stratum of the myth, the sexual significance of

which

is

now

It is differentiated also in this case

cation of the

second stratum.

plain, underlies, as in the fire saga, a

phenomena

from the

of nature, that

is,

first

by the personifi-

by the appearance of

man-like divine beings, by an intensive sexual repression.

We

meet a half divine being that bears the name of Soma. Soma is a genius of strength and procreation; our assumption of the pecunature of

liar

Soma

receives here a full confirmation.

myths Agni, already known It is

in

In certain

to us, appears in the place of

Soma.

of great interest, at this point, to refer to a Greek myth

which the idea of the origin of the nectar of the gods by boring held. It especially opens the way to an understanding of the

was

latest

Soma saga. Zeus desired to get to Persewho was hidden in the cloud mountain. To this end he

stratum of the

phone,

changed himself into a serpent and bored into the mountain. sexual symbolism, without further details, us.

From

is

This

incomprehensible to

the union of Zeus and Persephone comes Dionysus,

the god of wine, a personification of the nectar of the gods.

Dionysus was nursed by the Hyades

;

these are as rain goddesses

likewise a personification of the heavenly

soma; as a

constellation

they preside over the rainy season.

Zeus of Greek mythology corresponds to Indra of the Indian. He is also the god of the clear, unclouded heavens. He also plays an important

role in the

soma

srga.

He

becomes the soma rob-

DREAMS AND MYTHS

66

Indra brings soma out of a cave, as Matarichvan does Agni

ber.

stratum of the Prometheus saga, in which the Gandguarded him. This robbery was carried out by Indra in

in the third

harvas

38

the form of a falcon.

many sagas the robbery of the soma is also ascribed to Agni, who likewise takes on the form of a bird. We have met Agni before as the fire-robbing bird. Now we also learn to know him as the robber of the soma and have therein a remarkable identification before us. The falcon must contend In

with the Gandharvas for the possession of the soma.

In the

struggle he loses a feather which falls to the earth and changes

soma

We

have already met a quite similar story in the analysis of the Prometheus saga. Like the latter, the soma into a

saga, in

its

plant.

third stratum,

tent the sexual

is

is

so distorted that in the manifest con-

wholly dispensed with.

We

must go still further into the significance of the soma plant and will find on the way new evidence for the identity of the soma with human semen. The branch of the soma tree, a symbolic representation of the male organ, possesses wonderful

them not only to the soma drink; it serves much more the most various uses and ceremonies. From the attributes.

It gives

mountain ash are obtained the so-called divining rods which serve,

among

other things, to locate subterranean water.

According to

a very ancient custom the herdsmen struck their cattle in the

spring with a branch of the mountain ash to increase their fruit-

The branch of the soma tree wand such as the staff of Hermes and

fulness and production of milk.

turns also into a magic

the thyrsus with which Dionysus struck wine from the rock.

have already mentioned the biblical story water from the rock with his miraculous nificance of this staff

becomes

still

clearer,

in

which Moses

staff

;

We

strikes

the symbolic sig-

when we

changed into a serpent before the eyes of Pharaoh.

recall, that

it

39

M Kuhn has shown in a special work that from the Gandharvas have a species of demon, the Centaurs of the Greek saga. 89

come

The

process of erection has plainly stimulated the phantasy activities staff (phallus) into a serpent signifies the return of the phallus to the quiescent condition. to

an extraordinary degree; the transformation of the

MYTH OF THE

ANALYSIS OF THE

Of

ORIGIN OF NECTAR

67

the extremely varied functions of the ash in the myths

and customs one especially of the ash the pestle

is

is

This wood protects against

butter.

believed one

From

interesting to us.

is

made which

all

used

the

wood

in the preparation

of

kinds of witchcraft which

exposed to by butter. According to present sources there can now be no doubt that the process of it

is

making butter

is

is

especially

quite comparable to the preparation of fire by

the act of generation and

set symbolically in its place, that

is

further the product, the butter,

is

semen and

A

also with the soma.

scribes the origin of the

soma

the Asuras (bad

respectively with

Mahabarata de-

tale of the

as a process throughout analogous

to the preparation of butter.

I will

The gods

greatly abbreviated.

identified

40 account give here Kuhn's

desiring amrita (ambrosia) and

demons) take the mountain Mandara as a butter

up the ocean with it. Indra laid the serpent a rope about the mountain and now the gods and

stick in order to beat

Vasuki

like

upon it. Out of the mouth of the pulledupon serpent darted smoke and flame which formed into thick clouds which cast down lightning and rain upon the gods. At

Asura began

to pull

the same time, while the mountain trees standing together

started in this

on

its

way wrapped

itself

lightning does the dark clouds.

from the clouds, and

all

was being whirled around, the fire and the fire

summit caught

around the mountain

The

fire

like the

Indra put out with water

of the juices of the great trees and plants

flowed into the sea, and out of this water mixed with the most excellent juices,

which

in this

which curdles

saga

is

into butter, the

identified with the

moon,

soma

after

it

rises

up,

different

other mythical beings, and finally Dhanvantari comes forth hold-

ing a white jug in which the amrita

is

found.

The gods and

and the former conquer. numerous other representations of the winning of the amrita. None of them speak against the signification of the soma assumed by me. Each of the three

Asuras contend for

The

this

oldest Indian epics contain

"Kuhn, "Die Herabkunft

des Feuers," 1886, S. 219.

DREAMS AND MYTHS

68

which we have been able to

strata,

a wish-fulfillment, which

is

establish in the saga, contain

throughout analogous to that in the

corresponding stratum of the Prometheus saga.

As

in that, pro-

creation or the organ that serves that purpose, so in this the semen originally receives

its

apotheosis.

As

the result of repression of

semen gradually becomes transthe nectar of the gods. It becomes the gift of a good

the sexual content of the saga the

formed

god

to

into

man.

The saga

of the soma goes through the same trans-

formation as the Prometheus saga and ends, like not sexual wish-fulfillment.

it,

in

an actual,

XII

The Wish Theory I

have

tried,

of the

Myth

on the basis of psychological considerations, to

give a theory of the origin of myths, and, through going into the analysis of examples, to lend

it

support.

It is

now

time to discuss

the relation of the views defended here to other mythological theories.

The

oldest,

and

I believe

the most popular theory today, as-

sumes the myth to be the figurative expression of philosophicoreligious ideas. lie,

I

According to generally diffused views such ideas

so to speak, at the foundation of the life of the

cannot myself follow this view.

world with an

into the

assumed that man,

As

little

human

psyche.

as the child comes

altruistic ethics, quite as little is

in prehistoric times, bears within

it

to be

himself philo-

sophical or religious ideas and that he symbolizes these, by

of supplement, in the myths. repression

An uncommonly

was necessary before such an

ethics

way

long process of

came

to

occupy

an assured position in the race and this process of repression must be repeated in miniature again today by each individual. Our analysis of the Prometheus saga has shown that the single con-

—

which appeared as an ethical-religious idea the view of Prometheus as a providential being is of a quite subordinate, secondary nature, while ideas and wishes of quite another sort

stituent

—

are found to be the true basis of the saga.

As Freud

has shown

for the CEdipus saga, so I believe I have established for the Pro-

metheus saga, that

it

has not taken

its

origin

gious, or philosophical considerations, but tasies of

mankind.

I

from

ethical, reli-

from the sexual phan-

conceive the ethical-religious constituents

of the myth as later impressions, as products of repression.

The

other sagas also, which I could not go into so completely, appear to

me

to speak throughout in favor of this view. 69

DREAMS AND MYTHS

JO Fifty years ago,

when Kuhn founded comparative mythology,

science broke with the old views of the origin of myths.

the young

For example Delbriick 41 brought, with

He

lution of opinion to expression.

special precision, the revo-

declares that every

myth

The myth is a naive effort at phenomena. One credits myths now

goes back to a natural intuition. the explanation of natural

with an evolution and compares single sagas with the sagas of similar content of other peoples.

A

modern theory

traces back

all

myths of Semitic and indo-

germanic races to a single source: to the contemplation of the constellations.

to be the

The more

recent advances have

home of astronomy and This

a Babylonian origin.

work by Winckler

42

is

is

that very

shown Babylonia

many myths

the so-called astral theory.

indicate

A short

useful for purposes of orientation in this

theory.

If one takes a consideration of nature as the source of

myths, if one sees in view, such a theory

is

all

them an expression of an astronomical in this respect unsatisfactory.

It gives

us no perception of the motive in the myth formation. It takes no account of the egocentricity of all phantasy formations of

Well may astronomical considerations have had a great influence on the outer forms of myths but their significance can

mankind.

only be secondary.

In dreams also, observation of the outer

world made by the dreamer, enter as material

;

they appear,

if

one neglects a careful analysis, to constitute the essential conHe makes use of this material because he tent of the dream. finds in

it

"I"; it serves him for the symbolic wish phantasies. The astronomical view serves the

analogies to his

veiling of his

race to the same end.

It projects its

At

its

the central point of

riences in

them the

phantasies in the heavens.

myths stands the race

fulfilling of

its

itself;

it

expe-

wishes.

" *l Die Entstehung des Mythus bei den indogermanischen Delbriick, Volkerpsychol. u. Sprachwissenschaft, Bd. 3, 1865. Volkern," Zeitschr. fur " 42 GrundHimmels- und Weltenbild der Babylonier als Winckler, H., " Der alte In lage der Weltanschauung und Mythologie aller Volker."

Orient," Leipzig, 1902.

THE WISH THEORY OF THE MYTH The wish theory of myths wish theory of religion. The his

god has become,

in

is

7

I

amplified without difficulty to a

original identification of

myths and

man

with

in religion, indistinguishable.

Through a long process of repression the monotheistic

races have

advanced to the position of subordinating themselves to their god When gradually great revolutions have led to as their creator. the consideration of a single

god as the father of mankind

—no

longer in the sense of the procreative but of the caring-for father

— so again its

there

is

contained therein a wish phantasy which has

roots in infancy.

metheus displayed

Man

It is the

same wish phantasy which ProGreeks as

in his love for the

"

Forethought."

wishes for a care-taking providence; he projects this wish

heavens there must dwell a care-taking father for all men. Quite as clearly the Madonna cult comes from a wish phantasy rooted in infancy. The caring-for mother, who is at the side of in the

:

all

needs, the adult in the great needs of life will not

dispense with.

Therefore he carries over his retained childhood

the child in

phantasy to the queen of heaven. A belief in the continuation of life after death is nothing but the fulfillment of a wish phantasy,

whether

it

takes the form of another world in the Christian

sense, or of a place of sensual delights in the sense of Islam.

With

the help of the wish theory I have formulated an expla-

nation of the origin and the changes of myths.

remains to add

It

something about the disappearance of myths. That myths disappear is a sufficiently known fact which includes, for us, a new analogy with dreams.

whose tempo takes

place,

is

Every dream

suffers regressive alterations

sometimes quicker, sometimes slower.

however, no absolute

forgetting,

but

the

There

dream

thoughts with their accompaniments return into the repression.

So there comes a time when the race forgets its myths. Then when it unburdens itself of

there comes a time with each race, traditions,

perate

when

in place of the old structures of

manner of thinking appears.

This

phantasy a tem-

development

was

furthered as well through advancing knowledge of the laws of

DREAMS AND MYTHS

72

nature as through the general situation of the race which satIn this retrogressive process the isfied its grandiose complex. other structures of the phantasy of the race shared and not the

The sexual symbolism of language experienced hardly any more growth while the existing " " symbolism disappeared. The English language has advanced " furthest in this regard we might more properly say receded." symbolism of language.

least the

—

In

it

the sexual differentiations are, except for insignificant traces,

The

obliterated.

and mythical symbolism are plainly

linguistic

inadequate forms of expression for the modern spirit of the race especially

is

A

phantasies unnecessary.

;

make wish otherwise when it is proceeds

this so of the English.

race

Practical results

widely separated from the realization of the national grandiose complex. The example of the Jews is typical. They have preserved, through long periods of time, the wish phantasies

the childhood of the race.

One

from

thinks of the wish dream of the

chosen people and of the promised land. "

Modern

fundanatural science indicates by the designation " mental biogenetic law the fact that the development of the individual represents a condensed repetition of the development of

In long periods of time phylogenesis has brought

the species.

about gradually, vidual in lution.

its

in this

way,

many

Also

in the psychic field

know many phenomena

indi-

such stages of evothings are brought about in indiall

We have learned

viduals which phylogenetic development repeats. to

The

bodily alterations.

development must go through

in the

mental

life

of the race and in

that of the individual which are quite comparable to each other.

The most important in prehistoric times,

parallel for us,

makes

which as myths reach over

way

its

however,

is this

:

The

race,

wishes into structures of phantasy, In the same

into the historical ages.

the individual in his "prehistoric period"

makes structures

of phantasy out of his wishes which persist as dreams in the " " historical So is the myth a retained fragment from period. the infantile psychic life of the race and the

the individual.

dream

is

the

myth of

XIII in the Psychic Life of the Individual and the Race

The Determining Forces The

analytic investigations, the principles of

which are con-

works of Freud, extend to phenomena of the normal and of the abnormal psychic life, of individual and race psycholtained in the

He

ogy.

has succeeded in proving, in

every psychic phenomenon belief in inspiration

must be turned

is

all

these territories, that

The The defense

determined by definite causes.

no longer needs

to be refuted.

another direction. It is a widely spread, yes maintained view, that in the province of the scientifically psychic chance governs. One refuses to acknowledge, for all of in

even

the thousand occurrences of daily mistakes, forgettings,

life,

for the passing fancies, the

for the content of dreams, for the indi-

etc.,

vidual expressions of mental disorder, a determination by special

One

psychic factors.

One

persists in the old,

dualistic

standpoint.

removing them from the category of things determined by natural law. The view which ascribes psychological results to chance, is in so far throughout

assigns to psychic events a special position,

sterile,

nomena of

that

it

never can be reckoned on in the individual phe-

the psychic

Here come Freud's

teachings. They phenomenon as an effect and seek for its The determining forces in the psypsychological cause. life.

look upon every psychic specific

chic life are the object of

The

its

trend of investigation.

child brings the fundamentals, as first determiners for his

That

later psychological conduct,

with him into the world.

of this foundation which

of most importance for the explana-

is

tion of all structures of phantasy, tion.

This expresses

is

the psycho-sexual constitu-

itself unsophistically in

process of repression begins.

While the 73

side

childhood until the

child

is

preparing to

DREAMS AND MYTHS

74 transfer

its

inclination

on to special living and

lifeless objects

and

to draw it away from others, the influence of education, of the milieu, etc., impresses itself on it and constrains it to repress a Next, portion of its natural feelings, and especially the sexual.

the inborn tendencies exercise a powerful determining influence

on the repressed sexual infantilism. Infantile psychic material we meet anew in all the structures of phantasy. Reminiscences of This also is met in later life are added as a third determinant. Reminiscences, which are withdrawn

great part in repression.

from spontaneous recollection, are considered mostly as not existFreud is the first one to have recognized the significance of ing. repression and the determining effects of the repressed psychic material, and to have given it its full value in all its relations.

There are no accidents

in the

realm of the psychic.

outwardly appears as the result of accident has

its

What

deepest origin

equipment and the infantile sexual repression. The events after childhood are like tributaries which empty into

in the congenital

When we

main stream.

this

ascribe to the sexuality,

among

the

determining forces, such a comprehensive significance, that in

way

implies an overestimation of the sexual.

organic

life

we

Everywhere

no in

find self-preservation subordinated to the higher

principle of the preservation of the species.

serves species preservation

The impulse which

must be the stronger; otherwise the

race would perish. analytic researches, in the sense of Freud, are in bad odor the critics. They share this fate with a branch of with today language research etymology. It was once said of this, that

The

—

it was that vowels played no role in it and the consonants an insignificant role. An interpretation of words resting on scientific fundamentals has, however, carried the day; it

what characterized

bears rightly the

name of

a science of the

the true essence of the elements of speech.

"

essential," that

The Freudian

is

of

teach-

an etymology of psychic phenomena. It also will finally establish itself, although it may be at the cost of many conflicts

ing

is

with prudery and the prejudices of modern science.

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