The Lion in Freud's Dreams

In a recent paper (13) I suggested that the following passage from Freud's (2) “Interpretation of Dreams” is autobiographical: “A physician in his thirties told me that from the earliest days of his childhood to the present time a yellow lion frequently appeared in his dreams; he was able to give a minute description of it. This lion out of his dreams made its appearance one day in bodily form, as a china ornament that had long disappeared. The young man then learned from his mother that this object had been his favorite toy during his early childhood, though he himself had forgotten the fact.”

I wish to initiate the discussion of this autobiographical fragment because I believe that this dream and toy lion may have assumed some special significance for Freud and his work. In support of my thesis I will present some material from Freud's writings and from already existing biographical studies.

More than once Freud seemed to identify the psychoanalyst with the lion. For example, in a letter (14) to Georg Groddeck, who had steadfastly refused to join organized psychoanalysis but whose talents and contributions Freud valued very highly, he wrote in December, 1924: “There is one trait in your character which annoys me and which I would love to influence, although I realize that I wouldn't get very far. I am sorry that you try to erect a wall between yourself and the other lions in the congress menagerie. It is difficult to practice psychoanalysis in isolation; it is an exquisitely social enterprise. It would be so much nicer if we all roared or howled in chorus and in the same rhythm, instead of each one growling to himself in his corner. You know how much store I set by your personal sympathy, but it is time that you transferred some of it to the others. It could only benefit psychoanalysis.”

A second example can be found in one of Freud's last scientific papers, “Analysis Terminable and Interminable.” (8) He cites his analysis of the Wolf-Man and describes how he “resort