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In his comprehensive paper on 'The Theory of Symbolism', 1 Ernest Jones referred to the relation between true symbolism and other forms of indirect representation such as the metaphor. In this connection I wish to offer here a brief description of a special mechanism occurring in the analysis of schizoid boy of fifteen and a half years of age. I hope to expand this account at some future date, and to go more fully into the various problems of the nature and function of symbolism with which it is obviously linked.2 In this note I am concerned only incidentally with these more general issues. My purpose is to describe the special mechanism observed, of the acting out of a metaphor.
The patient has been in analysis a few months. He has acute hypochondriacal symptoms. His actions are often 'queer' and apparently meaningless.
One day he told me that he had been trying to make a parachute out of an old umbrella, and that, if he succeeded, his intention was to take it to the top floor of the house, attach to it a basket containing the cat, of whom he was very fond, and let the basket down from the window by means of the parachute. (He did not succeed, but spent some days on the attempt.)
The meaning of this aim and action became clear only slowly. I will not detail the steps by which we arrived at it, but give its significance as uncovered after about a month of further analysis.
The boy's parents were both of advanced political views, 'bohemian' in their sexual morality and general ways of life. They had lived apart for several years and were now divorced. The mother was happily