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Freud's first reported reconstruction was of experiences in the preoedipal period and referred to the psychological meaning and consequences of the birth and death of his younger brother, Julius. In reporting to Fliess on his self analysis (Freud, 1887–1902, Letter 70, October 3, 1897), Freud states that the death of his six month old brother when he, Freud, was almost two years old, produced within him 'the germ of self-reproach'. This remarkable reconstruction of an emotional reaction during the rapproachement subphase (Mahler) points to Freud's affective reaction at the time, a depressively tinged basic mood that was a superego precursor, and to his developing sense of self.
Oedipal and preoedipal reconstructions actually made their appearance simultaneously. Later, in the same letter to Fliess (Letter 70), Freud reported oedipal reconstructions. Blum offers other illustrations of Freud's thinking which encompassed preoedipal influences with the Oedipus complex—including the primal scene experience of the Wolf Man when he was eighteen months of age.
The Nonvixit dream, which Blum discusses at length, contains a rich interlacing of oedipal and preoedipal associations. It is linked to Freud's reconstruction regarding Julius. The dream suggests the importance of the influence of the rapprochement subphase, in the second year of life, during which the child is especially sensitive to separation from his mother with whom he no longer feels a union. The child wishes for and fears merger. Freud's nephew, John, appears as a revenant, an infantile object important in his own right, but also a screen object for his brother Julius who is not directly mentioned. There are associations to John; Julius Caesar, murdered by Brutus with whom Freud identified; Julius whom Freud wished dead; Freud's father, Jacob, who had died two years prior to