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(All names used in this article are fictitious. They have been chosen in such a way as to preserve their relative associative values.)
This is the story of Esther Smith, a virginal unmarried lady of sixty, who demonstrated a marked genitalization of the lungs. As a result of this she experienced a fantasy of pulmonary conception. The fantasy was uncovered in the course of analysis, and, as a result, the pulmonary distress vanished, and menstrual pains began again after a lapse of more than twenty-five years. The evidence for the support of this experience is given here in condensed form.
Miss Smith had already been to me for help in an emotional crisis, and after a few months returned to me complaining of intermittent thickening in the throat, which could be relieved only by coughing up pieces of phlegm.
These symptoms seemed to be evoked by the presence of specified persons, principal among whom was her new employer, a Mr. Tiller. It was this psychological factor which caused her to approach me.
Miss Smith was alarmed not by the attacks themselves, which were embarrassing but not painful, but by the fact that they closely resembled symptoms which nearly twenty years earlier had immediately preceded an illness diagnosed as double pneumonia. It was obvious that she feared a recurrence of that serious pulmonary condition.
Questioned as to her earlier illness, she gave the following information:
She had fallen sick just after her return from a trip to Central America.
This trip was begun a few weeks after the death of her fiance.
She had traveled south on one of the ships of the United Fruit Company—by which concern she was at that time employed.