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From the dreams of a generation to the theory of dreams: Freud’s Roman dreams

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 92; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1745-8315.2011.00463.x

1745-8315

David Meghnagi,

Psychoanalysis and Social Critique

Abstract In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud’s interpretation of oedipal desires does not occur at the expense of historical and personal desires, which are always there as a backdrop. In the relentless examination of his own dreams that Freud makes in order to show the mechanisms inherent in all oneiric deformation, we are also led to another, specifically historical, aspect of the issue of Jewish emancipation, which he experiences at first hand. By analysing his own dreams, Freud not only shows us the mechanisms governing dream formation, but also develops a pointed critique of his contemporary society and its prejudices.Key words: desiresdreamsJewish emancipation 1. Full member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) and full member of the Italian Psychoanalytical Association and tutor of the Italian Institute of Psychoanalysts (IIPG). He lectures in clinical psychology at Rome Tre University, where he is responsible for the International Master’s degree in the Shoah Didactics. He is a member of the Italian delegation with the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Remembrance. He has recently started a collection of music composed in exile during the Nazi‐Fascist persecution period. He has researched into socialization processes, multilingualism, prejudice, anti‐Semitism and into the ways of working through grief.1. Full member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) and full member of the Italian Psychoanalytical Association and tutor of the Italian Institute of Psychoanalysts (IIPG). He lectures in clinical psychology at Rome Tre University, where he is responsible for the International Master’s degree in the Shoah Didactics. He is a member of the Italian delegation with the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Remembrance. He has recently started a collection of music composed in exile during the Nazi‐Fascist persecution period. He has researched into socialization processes, multilingualism, prejudice, anti‐Semitism and into the ways of working through grief.Notes1. Full member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) and full member of the Italian Psychoanalytical Association and tutor of the Italian Institute of Psychoanalysts (IIPG). He lectures in clinical psychology at Rome Tre University, where he is responsible for the International Master’s degree in the Shoah Didactics. He is a member of the Italian delegation with the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Remembrance. He has recently started a collection of music composed in exile during the Nazi‐Fascist persecution period. He has researched into socialization processes, multilingualism, prejudice, anti‐Semitism and into the ways of working through grief.2. As was apparent, this was Leopold Konigstein.3. Cf. CitationS. Freud (1900a, p. xxvi) Preface to the 1908 edition of The Interpretation of Dreams. Cf. also CitationD. Meghnagi, 1993, 2004[1992].4. In the letter to Fliess of 27 August 1899, referring to the Traumdeutung the ‘Egyptian book of dreams’ is mentioned (see CitationFreud, 1985).5. Freud’s Hebrew name Shlomo derives from shalom [peace]. Freud’s awareness of the connection between his Hebrew name and the above‐mentioned legends is indicated by the passage from S. CitationFreud (1901b, p. 199).6. Freud had called on Nothnagel to present him with a copy of a paper he had written. This well‐known specialist in gastric diseases, who was not Jewish, was one of the leading forces of the Society for the Struggle against anti‐Semitism (see CitationElon, 1975, p.138). After informing Freud about the decision to propose him for the professorship, he also mentioned the difficulties the proposal would entail (Freud to Fliess, 8 February 1897, in CitationFreud, 1985).7. Freud to Fliess, 4 January 1898 (CitationFreud, 1985).8. Freud to Fliess, ibid.9. See the letters of Elise Gomperz of 25 November and 11 December 1901 (CitationFreud, 1960a, 1960b).10. Among the gestures made by Ferstel to win the favour of the Minister concerning Freud’s appointment there was the gift of a painting by Boecklin to a public gallery inaugurated by the Minister (see M. CitationFreud, 1957).11. Freud to Fliess, 11 March 1902 (CitationFreud, 1985). In the Psychopathology of Everyday Life the theme returns in reference to a fantasy about triumphing over a couple who had preferred to entrust their daughter to ‘a foreign luminary’ for treatment, instead of to Freud: “A few days after I had been awarded the title of professor – which carries considerable authority with it in countries under monarchical rule – my thoughts, while I was walking through the Inner Town, suddenly turned to a childish phantasy of revenge directed against a particular married couple. Some months earlier they had called me in to see their little daughter, who had developed an interesting obsessional symptom following upon a dream. I took a great interest in the case, whose genesis I thought I understood.My offer of treatment was however declined by her parents and I was given to understand that they thought of changing over to a foreign authority who effected cures by hypnotism. My present phantasy was that after the total failure of that attempt the parents begged me to start my treatment, saying that now they had complete confidence in me, and so on. I however answered: ‘Yes, now you have confidence in me – now that I too have become a professor. The title has done nothing to alter my capacities; if you could not make use of me as a university lecturer you can do without me as a professor as well’. At this point my phantasy was interrupted by a loud ‘Good day to you, Professor!’ and I looked up and saw walking past me the very married couple on whom I had just taken my revenge by rejecting their offer. Immediate reflection destroyed the impression of something miraculous. I had been walking towards the couple along a wide, straight and almost deserted street; when I was about twenty paces from them I had glanced up for a moment and caught a glimpse of their impressive figures and recognized them, but had set the perception aside – on the pattern of a negative hallucination – for the emotional reasons which then took effect in the phantasy that arose with apparent spontaneity”. (CitationFreud, 1901b, pp. 263–4).12. The reference to the unpaid ticket is strongly reminiscent of Heine’s famous quip. As we shall later see, the theme is taken up again in the Traumdeutung.13. Under a photograph of the Arch of Titus on a postcard sent to Abraham from Rome in September 1913, Freud was to write significantly: ‘The Jew survives. Fond regards and keep your spirits up, Casimir’ (Freud to Abraham, 13 September 1913, in CitationFreud and Abraham, 1965).14. In remembering his children, Freud was to do all he could to preserve an exact opposite image of his own father’s meekness ( M. CitationFreud, 1957).15. CitationFreud, 1900a, note added in 1909; Id (CitationFreud, 1901b, pp. 217–20).16. Id. Psychopathology of Everyday Life, pp. 217–20.17. In a note added to the 1930 edition, Freud acknowledges the error and questions the Jewish origins of the Napoleonic field‐marshal (CitationFreud, 1900a). It is curious that it was during those years that Freud, because of the Egyptian origin of the name Moses, was to develop his theory that Moses was an Egyptian prince.18. Apart from any judgement about whether or not a father needs to tell his son about any specific episode on any particular occasion, it should be added that this father, who lets himself be defeated by his son, is both in fantasy and in reality a father who authorizes his son to go further. A father who never lets himself be defeated risks making his son a terrorist or a loser by definition. The indication applies also to analysts. Woe betide the analyst who always wins with his patient.19. On Fliess’s advice, Freud omitted to include in the Traumdeutung an important dream of his, which in a letter dated 23 October 1898 he had defined as having been the most extensively analysed (CitationFreud, 1985; CitationKruell, 1979).20. At first Herzl had tried in vain to win over to his bizarre idea the co‐editors and co‐directors of the Neue Freie Presse, Eduard Bacher and Moritz Benedikt. “For a hundred generations your ancestors have preserved their integrity in their Jewishness” and “now you expect to be the terminal point of the whole process. This is pure temerity. You cannot do it. You have no right”. This was the objection on the part of Benedikt, which struck Herzl most for its indisputability (CitationElon, 1975, pp. 140–1).21. In January of that year Herzl had tried in vain to take possession of the Neue Freie Presse in order to use it as a resonator for his ideas.22. CitationFreud, 1900a, p. 442: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion”, Psalm 137.23. In the concluding scene the dying Samuel exclaims: “Jews, my brothers, the day will come when they will let us live, if you show you are able to die [...] [murmuring] I want to get out [...] [with all his strength] out, out of the ghetto!” (CitationElon, 1975, p. 149).24. Ibid. The other exclamation common among Jews is ba’avonot harabbim (literally ‘because of great sins’) which in Roman Jewish slang has become bangavonod. Familiarity with the use of the term and the ability to break down the many meanings it has taken on in daily use among the Jews in Rome gave me the rare opportunity of entering into the living experience of a Jewish patient of mine. Although having suffered indescribable family tragedies, which subsequently produced breakdowns and periods of hospitalization, my patient had not lost her fondness for the liberating term bangavonod. The complicity of shared linguistic knowledge established in the analytic relationship through the repeated use of this and other Roman Jewish terms was to prove an invaluable means of subsequently confronting the unresolved complexities of her tragic experience. Analogously, in the case of patients from other cultural backgrounds, recapturing the language of mother–child relationships during crucial moments of analytical treatment has proved to be an important step in recovery of a patient’s past and in finding a way of fully experiencing emotions in the present.25. This is an addition made in 1919 from a study by V. Tausk.26. CitationFreud (1925d, p. 8). In the three essays on Moses, the argument reappears in general terms. In reference to one of the charges of anti‐Semitism, Freud reveals how the Jews had in reality inhabited, from a much earlier period than the so‐called original populations, the territories those populations wanted to exclude them or expel them from. See CitationFreud (1939a[1934–38]), pp. 136–7.27. For the reconstruction of Freud’s family tree before the 18th century, see CitationKruell, 1979.