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An interesting dream involving teeth and death was given by Freud1 some two decades ago, but he failed to explain why a tooth should be symbolical of a human being. Again, some fifteen years ago C. G. Seligmann2 gave a number of tooth-losing dreams which were connected in belief with the death of a relative; but he too, like Freud, postponed further analysis to the future. Apparently no one has as yet seriously attempted an explanation of such dreams.
Only recently, having suffered from two aching teeth, and having had a dream in connection therewith, I was led into a study of this type of dream. I think I found the reason why the living relatives are symbolized by sound teeth and dead relatives by decaying, falling teeth. But, in justice to Freud, let us first consider some details of the tooth dream he cites.
The father of a young man had just died. On returning from the funeral the youth's tooth began to ache. He went to a dentist to have it extracted, but the latter said he would first kill the nerve, and would then pull the tooth out. During this delay the youth dreamed he saw his father exhumed and he noted how poorly he looked. The father went on living, and the youth did all he could to prevent the father from noticing his own bad condition. The youth associated exhumation with extraction.
The tooth symbolizes a human being, a relative, while the nerve seems to symbolize the life-principle in the body. Hence the life remains in the body even though the father's true body has been buried; for his symbolic body continues its existence in the mouth where it aches and where it awaits exhumation by the dentist. The open grave that the youth saw in the cemetery is confused with the impending hole in the gums and jaw. The dead tooth is destined to become discolored if left in the jaw; hence it has already begun to look poorly.