The Dream of the Cock-Up

≪Here is a dream that occurred in the context of homosexual impulses: he was going for a walk somewhere with a friend … (indistinct) … balloons≫ (Freud, S., 1913, 198, my italics).

An equation's solution is the value or value system that proves the equation when applied to the unknowns. Freud's example takes the form of the solution to an equation: in the domain of the dream, ≪two men≫ (a) is a value that is now known: a couple; while ≪balloons≫ (b) is another known value — namely, the male genitals. For ≪going for a walk≫, the unknown (x), a value can be found that satisfies a and b: ≪going for a walk≫ = fulfilling a homosexual wish.

A new example: the cock-up

I shall present a dream as short as the one given by Freud, in which saying hallo to a man is a mistake. When I read the example he included under the new heading, I felt that it was similar in many ways to the dream and the interpretation I had chosen as my subject here. Nor did I resist the temptation to seek an analogous solution: if a man says hallo to another man and that is a mistake, then x (saying hallo to someone) stands for something illicit. Let us consider what is illicit here. It is interesting to note that in both cases the unknown is the verb — that is, the action.

The patient is a young inspector with a symptom: the fear of committing an offence. Asking to be exempted from investigations on the grounds of ≪incompatibility≫ has gradually become a fresh reason for anxiety.3 He currently has to investigate a travel agency from which he bought tickets in the past. No one could charge him with anything, but he is afraid that this might constitute an offence — an incompatibility with his role — so he fears disciplinary proceedings. That seems enough for a meaning to be assigned to the dream:

≪Last night I had a dream: I am at the office; I go in and say hallo to someone with a moustache, but then apologize, as I mixed him up with a colleague who had been subjected to disciplinary pro