Perceptual Registration of the Analyst Outside of Awareness

Although the role of subliminal registration in the formation of dreams is well known,1 analysts rarely have the opportunity to analyze a dream which they know in advance refers to their patient's perceptual registration of them outside of awareness in an extra-analytic setting. This brief note describes such an incident.

The events that provided the day residue are as follows. The analyst and his wife attended a recital of chamber music in a very small auditorium. By chance, their seats were in the first row, center, of the mezzanine, overlooking the orchestra seats. Two other relevant details are that the analyst's wife has red hair and that an external event forced them to leave the recital during the intermission.

The patient, a forty-year-old single man, began his next analytic hour by reporting a dream. Following a brief introductory section that had water as a theme (it had rained heavily the preceding evening), the dream continued:

An old couple was living in the building instead of a crazy old woman. The crazy old woman may still be somewhere in the back. There are formal introductions. The man introduces his wife and himself. Then he points up towards the ceiling, saying that this is so-and-so, maybe Lisa,2 perhaps his child. I assume that there is an attic there with the girl present but I don't look up there. Then there is another vague section. It was as if I left and came back and the girl had fallen or jumped down. It may be that she was killed.