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of
the day of the dream, where, while he was waiting, he examined some
pictures which were exhibited, which represented motives similar to
the
dream pictures. He stepped nearer to a small picture which particula
rly
took his fancy in order to see the name of the artist, which, howeve
r,
was quite unknown to him.
Later in the same evening, in company, he heard about a Bohemian
servant-girl who boasted that her illegitimate child "was made on th
e
stairs." The dreamer inquired about the details of this unusual
occurrence, and learned that the servant-girl went with her lover to
the
home of her parents, where there was no opportunity for sexual
relations, and that the excited man performed the act on the stairs.
In
witty allusion to the mischievous expression used about wine-adulter
ers,
the dreamer remarked, "The child really grew on the cellar steps."
These experiences of the day, which are quite prominent in the dream
content, were readily reproduced by the dreamer. But he just as read
ily
reproduced an old fragment of infantile recollection which was also
utilized by the dream. The stair-house was the house in which he had
spent the greatest part of his childhood, and in which he had first
become acquainted with sexual problems. In this house he used, among
other things, to slide down the banister astride which caused him to
become sexually excited. In the dream he also comes down the stairs
very
rapidly--so rapidly that, according to his own distinct assertions,
he
hardly touched the individual stairs, but rather "flew" or "slid dow
n,"
as we used to say. Upon reference to this infantile experience, the
beginning of the dream seems to represent the factor of sexual
excitement. In the same house and in the adjacent residence the drea
mer
used to play pugnacious games with the neighboring children, in whic
h he
satisfied himself just as he did in the dream.
If one recalls from Freud's investigation of sexual symbolism[9] tha
t in
the dream stairs or climbing stairs almost regularly symbolizes coit
us,
the dream becomes clear. Its motive power as well as its effect, as
is
shown by the pollution, is of a purely libidinous nature. Sexual
excitement became aroused during the sleeping state (in the dream th
is
is represented by the rapid running or sliding down the stairs) and
the
sadistic thread in this is, on the basis of the pugnacious playing,
indicated in the pursuing and overcoming of the child. The libidinou
s
excitement becomes enhanced and urges to sexual action (represented
in
the dream by the grasping of the child and the conveyance of it to t
he
middle of the stairway). Up to this point the dream would be one of
pure, sexual symbolism, and obscure for the unpracticed dream
interpreter. But this symbolic gratification, which would have insur
ed
undisturbed sleep, was not sufficient for the powerful libidinous
excitement. The excitement leads to an orgasm, and thus the whole
stairway symbolism is unmasked as a substitute for coitus. Freud lay
s
stress on the rhythmical character of both actions as one of the rea
sons
for the sexual utilization of the stairway symbolism, and this dream
especially seems to corroborate this, for, according to the express
assertion of the dreamer, the rhythm of a sexual act was the most
pronounced feature in the whole dream.
Still another remark concerning the two pictures, which, aside from
their real significance, also have the value of "Weibsbilder" (liter
ally
_woman-pictures_, but idiomatically _women_). This is at once shown
by
the fact that the dream deals with a big and a little picture, just
as
the dream content presents a big (grown up) and a little girl. That
cheap pictures could also be obtained points to the prostitution
complex, just as the dreamer's surname on the little picture and the
thought that it was intended for his birthday, point to the parent
complex (to be born on the stairway--to be conceived in coitus).
The indistinct final scene, in which the dreamer sees himself on the
staircase landing lying in bed and feeling wet, seems to go back int
o
childhood even beyond the infantile onanism, and manifestly has its
prototype in similarly pleasurable scenes of bed-wetting.
6. A modified stair-dream.
To one of my very nervous patients, who was an abstainer, whose fanc
y
was fixed on his mother, and who repeatedly dreamed of climbing stai
rs
accompanied by his mother, I once remarked that moderate masturbatio
n
would be less harmful to him than enforced abstinence. This influenc
e
provoked the following dream:
"His piano teacher reproaches him for neglecting his piano-playing,
and
for not practicing the _Etudes_ of Moscheles and Clementi's _Gradus
ad
Parnassum_." In relation to this he remarked that the _Gradus_ is on
ly a
stairway, and that the piano itself is only a stairway as it has a
scale.
It is correct to say that there is no series of associations which
cannot be adapted to the representation of sexual facts. I conclude
with
the dream of a chemist, a young man, who has been trying to give up
his
habit of masturbation by replacing it with intercourse with women.
_Preliminary statement._--On the day before the dream he had given a
student instruction concerning Grignard's reaction, in which magnesi
um
is to be dissolved in absolutely pure ether under the catalytic
influence of iodine. Two days before, there had been an explosion in
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