Condensation and Resymbolization in Dream Interpretation

The following dream which came up for consideration during an analysis presented a series of interesting features:

“I see a man, who in some way belongs to me, kissing another woman. I do not seem to mind, but I have an uneasy feeling about the woman's husband as I feel that he will object and try to cause trouble.”

The dreamer was an unmarried woman of forty. She had been engaged some years ago and had looked forward to marriage with mixed feelings. When she pictured the sexual relationship she could not face it and broke her engagement. Her parents had criticized the young men she had known and insisted that they were not good enough for her. Her mother was a capable woman who augmented her power over her husband by a series of hysterical illnesses. These had far-reaching effects such as causing him to give up his business in a certain city in order to move to quarters more congenial for his wife and finally an almost complete loss of his money. The father had been noted for his docile qualities and his integrity. The mother was living and still enjoying her hysteria in a modified form.

The mother played a considerable role in the formation of the psychosexual life of the dreamer and every dream she had presented had been filled with mother figures.

The patient had had some money left her but had lost most of it in following the advice of various suave gentlemen who had promised her large returns on her investments. The only thing they left her were a series of experiences, the details of which she found rather hard to remember as they were too intimately bound up with her vanished dreams of a life without effort on her part. Other dream material showed that the principal factor which led to her faulty investments was the goal of being supported by the “Father” (return from the investment).

The patient had made her living by various clerical and executive positions, most of them connected with women's organizations. She