Material is presented which makes it possible to date a personal dream of Freud which was added to the 5th edition of The Interpretation of Dreams. The date, February 1918, is also the date when Freud for many years had expected to die. Assuming that this superstitious belief represented a defence against a destructive impulse, the dream shows the impulse emerging as the fateful date passed uneventfully. A second day residue of the dream is identified. It makes it plausible that Freud's dream may have been a 'punishment dream', and an additional piece of analysis is suggested. It is possible that insights gained by Freud's self-analysis contributed to the process of thinking that led him to the formulation of his Dual Instinct Theory in 1919.