The Unconscious Bird Symbol in Literature

Psychoanalysis has, on the basis of clinical evidence, established the fact that the bird may in dreams be a symbol for the breast as well as the penis. A symbolic connection in the case of bird-penis is that both have the ability to contradict the force of gravity—the bird by flying, the penis by erection. The connection between bird-breast is more difficult to see, but since penis and breast are unconsciously identified the bird can be made to stand for both. It seems probable that the child first symbolizes the penis with the bird and then transfers this symbol to the unconscious breast image. At the time of the child's earliest experience with the breast it is not likely to have much experience with birds. This only comes later, as does his experience of the erectile power of the penis. The bird as breast and penis symbol is implicit in Freud's interpretation of Leonardo Da Vinci's dream of the vulture which dips its tail into his mouth in order to fulfill a fellatio wish. 1)

In the study of unconscious symbols as they appear in literature this ambiguous character of the bird often causes difficulty in interpretation. Poetry from the earliest times is full of bird symbols which in many instances yield very incongruous results if interpreted as referring only to the penis. On the other hand, there is a psychoanalytic theory, advanced by Dr. Edmund Bergler 2), which states that the primary motivations of the writer are derived from the breast complex on the oral level of regression. On the basis of this theory it would seem that the bird-breast symbol should be more frequent in literature than the bird-penis symbol. This paper will be devoted to some literary examples tending to show that this is the case.

But before we look at literature it may be of interest to note that folklore seems to provide us with evidence that