I am forced out or else compelled to keep my place (?). At any rate I am under some compulsion, but I do not mind it.

10 Poisoning has a deeper determination in the significance of poison as spermatic fluid and of poisoning as pregnancy. (Extension of the second symbolic equation.) One of my patients was afraid that his sister would become pregnant through the water in the bath tub, because he masturbated while bathing. Gino had the same fear. The widespread fear of syphilis is largely motivated in the same way. Poison stands also for money; money for penis: vid. Anthropophyteia, vol. VI, p. 15. Thus we uncover here a new determination for the anal-erotic avarice.

Analysis: The dreamer has proposed marriage to a certain girl, a step he has since often regretted. A short time afterwards he wrote her a letter breaking up the engagement. She was on the point of committing suicide. He became engaged a second time. Shortly after this second engagement his severe neurosis broke out. All that is expressed in the short dream. The open space is his bride; but "freier Platz" is also satire. Any one else was welcome to his bride. He took up a "free spot" (literal meaning of the term).

He is forced out. That is literally true. His sister compelled him to give up the engagement. In fact she dictated the letter in which he apprised the girl of his change of mind. "Or perhaps compelled to keep my place." Also true. His bride now holds on fast to him and would not let him free. His psychic conflict formulates itself as follows: should he keep his word and marry a poor girl, or become free and break his word to be so. It shows also a competitive struggle between two women for his love: sister and bride. What is his wish? He is not self-reliant. He wants to be led to a decision. That is the reason why he is apparently so unconcerned. But his "not minding it" is the greatest hypocrisy. It should be: "I am immensely worried over this uncertainty!" The feigned affect of indifference is a pure wish fulfillment. How clearly his doubt is expressed! "Forced out" or "kept down" and with a question mark.

Any one who has read the previous dream analysis pertaining to this case will see at once that this apparent indifference is a cover for affects so tremendous that they have actually led the subject to the brink of committing suicide. This illustrates the true character of dreams apparently free of affects. The absence of affectivity in this case represents a wish fulfillment in the midst of tremendous affects.

Often the dreamer wonders about some occurrence in the dream. Let us analyze a dream of this type: