Meeting of the Psychoanalytic Association of New York

DISCUSSION: Dr. Glenn wondered whether Dr. Niederland conceived of his "arctic dream" patient's manner of dress and his dream as reactions to the actual experience at ten or eleven months of age or as reactions to stories he may have heard later, and whether the experience had been interpreted differently at different stages of development. Since the trauma was quite early and the patient schizophrenic, Dr. Glenn asked whether the effect of the reconstruction might not have been caused by the magic of an apparently omniscient person, which led to greater faith in the analyst, rather than by integration of the reconstruction. Dr. Niederland replied that since the whole episode had been a closely guarded family secret, he did not doubt that the dream revealed the patient's memory of the real event. He agreed, however, that he first appeared as a "magician" and this later had to be worked through with the patient.

Dr. Jan Frank commented on Dr. Niederland's insight into the transference meaning of Mr. Magoo as "not seeing something." He thought his own approach would have been to press for the meaning of the heavy clothing, and noted that the stickiness of drives may often preclude any change or confirmation of the reconstruction or interpretation.

Dr. Alan Eisnitz wondered if Dr. Niederland's "arctic dream" patient's mother had actually confirmed the reconstruction because of her need to confess after the patient mentioned Dr. Niederland's remark to her. With a neurotic patient, he suggested, there might have been repeated references to the analyst not hearing, being cold, not listening, and perhaps gradually this would have uncovered the early event. Dr. Eisnitz then presented a brief illustration of a patient in analysis who noted in the first session that his father had been drafted into the Army when the patient was four and a half years old and had been gone for several years. The patient was married and on weekends repeatedly fought with his wife, then fel