The Symbolism of the Serpent

It is frequently stated in psycho-analytic literature that the serpent may appear in dreams or in neurotic phantasy as a sexual symbol. Wohlgemuth in his Critical Examination of Psycho-Analysis denies the

erotic significance of the serpent entirely. He attempts to prove that the serpent is a symbol of immortality, and not of sex. The point to be noted in Wohlgemuth's championship of the immortality symbolism as an alleged exclusive alternative to the sexual symbolism is his implicit subscription to a theory of a universal significance, attachable on every occasion to any given symbol. In this matter Wohlgemuth goes further than Freud; for although Freud raises the question of the possibility of giving dream symbols 'a firmly established significance like the signs in stenography', he expressly denies that there is any certainty in attaching the usual or common meaning to any individual case of symbolism. If Wohlgemuth had expressed his theory with equal caution he would not have denied the possibility of the sexual interpretation of the serpent symbolism but rather its probability. Freud's proposition that 'most cases of serpent symbolism are capable of sexual interpretation' does not demand an extreme demurrer, 'no cases of serpent symbolism are capable of sexual interpretation', to deny it effectively and sufficiently—if it can be denied.

According to Wohlgemuth, the sloughing of the serpent's skin 'appears to the artless and unsophisticated mind as a new snake crawling out of the old one, thus giving rise to the belief in the immortality of serpents'. Their capacity of recovery from mutilation strengthens this belief. From length of years comes the reputed wisdom ascribed to the serpent in Genesis. To prove further that the serpent is not a sexual symbol Dr. Wohlgemuth describes a number of erotic paintings wherein no serpents are depicted.

According to the interesting Hebrew myth describing the creation and the fall of man we know that God first made Ad