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It is an old and often repeated observation with which all analysts are familiar that a dream will frequently anticipate the onset of a somatic symptom or even of an organic illness. As an example I may cite from one of our asthma patients a dream which Dr. Helen McLean has placed at my disposal.
The patient, a forty-six-year-old, rather inarticulate laborer, had just started an analysis for bronchial asthma. The following dream was reported in the twelfth hour of his analysis and was probably a reaction to the analyst's first interpretation of a dream in the tenth hour.
'I can't remember it. It was about father and mother. It seems mother was doing blacksmith work. She had hot iron and was hammering.'
When the analyst reminds him that his father was a blacksmith, he adds a few details.
'Father was also in the dream but not so clear as mother. He was standing at the side of the shop—kind of dark. I plainly see my mother. She had hot iron and working at it, flattening it out and bending it, doing clean work, good job too.'
In association he protests that his mother never did any blacksmith work although she sometimes came to the door of the shop.
Corresponding to the patient's inarticulate character, he is quickly through with his associations, so the analyst tries to help him out. She suggests that perhaps she seems like a woman doing a man's job.