Dreams and Fantasies of Falling

Two brothers, caught in the whirlpool of the maelstrom, in Poe's story (Poe, 1908), are spun around in their little fishing-boat at such speed that they seem at times almost to overhang the abyss. Little by little the boat is being sucked down into the centre of the maelstrom. One man, maddened by panic, attempts to fight his brother for possession of what seems the safest position in the boat. The other gives way, knowing that all effort is hopeless but, even in his terror, something remains alive and active in his mind and enables him, by studying the natural motion of the vortex, to find his way to safety. His brother is lost, because he stays in the boat. The other, watching the debris from the wrecks that swirl around the walls of the vortex, observes that smaller and lighter pieces are gradually spun round to the rim of the funnel, so he lashes himself to a cask and, throwing himself into the sea, is eventually rescued. The archetypal significance of such a story is evident.

Dreams of falling belong to what is called typical dreams; that is to say, a great many people in different cultures have been known to dream them over the centuries and it is supposed that their meaning is always the same. In the ‘Interpretation of dreams’ Freud (1900) links them with dreams of flying and of giddiness, putting forward his two main theories about dreams in general: that they are recollections of childhood memories and that they have a sexual significance. For instance (p. 202): ‘If a woman dreams of falling, it almost invariably has a sexual sense, she is imagining herself as a “fallen woman”.’

With regard to childhood memories, he says (pp. 271-3): ‘Childish romping is what is being repeated in dreams of flying, falling, giddiness and so on; while the pleasurable feelings attached to these experiences are transformed into anxiety.’ For an explanation of such transformation he adds: ‘But often enough, as every mother knows, romping among children actually ends in