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by the more prominent Schorske, who concludes that the “uncle” dream “revealed a disguised wish either not to be Jewish, or to have the power to eliminate Jewish rivals.”152
Before we leave the Roman dreams, a last remark by Freud seems appropriate—a remark, made in a footnote, about his desire to go to Rome: “I discovered long since that it only needs a little courage to fulfill wishes which till then have been regarded as unattainable; and therefore became a constant pilgrim to Rome [emphasis added].”153 Thus, one of Freud’s childhood wishes—that of becoming a pilgrim and not a mere tourist or casual visitor to Rome—had been accomplished, and with it the hoped-for pleasure and psychic renewal. FREUD’S DREAM ABOUT RIDING TO A CHAPELI am riding a gray horse, at first timidly and awkwardly, as though I were merely leaning on it. Then I meet a colleague, P., also on horseback and dressed in rough frieze (tweed); he is sitting high on his horse. He calls my attention to something (probably to the fact that I have a very bad seat). Now I begin to feel more and more at ease on the back of my highly intelligent horse; I sit more comfortably, and I find that I am quite at home up here. My saddle is sort of a pad which completely fills the space between the neck and the rump of the horse. I ride between two vans, and just manage to clear them. After riding up the street for some distance, I turn around and wish to dismount, at first in front of a little open chapel which is built facing the street. Then I do really dismount in front of a chapel which stands near the first one; the hotel is in the same street; I might let the horse go there by itself, but I prefer to lead it thither. It seems as though I should be ashamed to arrive there on horseback. In front of the hotel there stands a page-boy, who shows me a note of mine which has been found, and ridicules me on account of it. On the note is written, doubly underlined: “Nothing to eat,” and then a second sentence (indistinct) something like: “No work.” At the same time a hazy idea that I am in a strange city in which I do no work.154 FREUD’S ANALYSIS AS PRESENTED BY VELIKOVSKYAssociations: He had suffered in the night from boils and the last thing he could possibly have done was to ride. But the dream plunges him into this very activity. (He cannot ride at all.) It is the negation of suffering. The gray color of his horse corresponds to the pepper-and-salt suit in which he saw his colleague P. the last time. Highly seasoned food is considered a cause of boils. Dr. P. liked to “ride the high horse” after he had replaced Freud in the treatment of a female patient who, like the Sunday equestrian, led him where she wished. “Thus the horse comes to be the symbolic representation of a woman patient (in the dream it is highly intelligent).” “‘I feel quite at home’ refers to the position which I occupied in the patient’s household before I was replaced by my colleague P.” It is a feat to practice psychotherapy for several hours daily while suffering from furunculosis |