Kafka: Foran Loven -  hypertekstualiseret af Elias Ole Tetens Lund

Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams, 1911

Chapter 5 Section D, Typical Dreams b) Dreams of the Death of Beloved Persons,  3. ed (1911) p. 148

"Foreløbig" drøm

p. 148:  On another occasion I dream that a university lecturer of my acquaintance says to me: "My son, the myopic." Then follows a dialogue of brief observations and replies. A third portion of the dream follows, in which I and my sons appear, and so far as the latent dream-content is concerned, the father, the son, and Professor M, are merely lay figures, representing myself and my eldest son. Later on I shall examine this dream again, on account of another peculiarity.
Chapter 6, Section G,  Absurd Dreams / Intellectual Performances in Dreams, 3. ed (1911)  p 222- 225

"Min søn, den nærsynede, den enøjede"

p. 222:     I have to show that yet another dream in which my ego does not appear is none the less egoistic. In chapter V., D., I referred to a short dream in which Professor M says: "My son, the myopic..."; and I stated that this was only a preliminary dream, preceding another in which I play a part. Here is the main dream, previously omitted, which challenges us to explain its absurd and unintelligible word-formation.

Drømmen

p. 223 On account of something or other that is happening in Rome, it is necessary for the children to flee, and this they do. The scene is then laid before a gate, a double gate in the ancient style (the Porta Romana in Siena, as I realize while I am dreaming). I am sitting on the edge of a well, and I am greatly depressed; I am almost weeping. A woman- a nurse, a nun- brings out the two boys and hands them over to their father, who is not myself. The elder is distinctly my eldest son, but I do not see the face of the other boy. The woman asks the eldest boy for a parting kiss. She is remarkable for a red nose. The boy refuses her the kiss, but says to her, extending her his hand in parting, "Auf Geseres," and to both of us (or to one of us) "Auf Ungeseres." I have the idea that this indicates a preference.
  a tangle of thoughts induced by a play I saw at the theatre called

Herzl

Das neue Ghetto (Theodor Herzl) note

Det jødiske spørgsmål

The Jewish question, anxiety as to the future of my children, who cannot be given a fatherland,

bekymringen for Freuds egne børn

anxiety as to educating them so that they may enjoy the privileges of citizens- all these features may easily be recognized in the accompanying dream-thoughts.

Eksilet

"By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept."  Psalm 137:1
  Siena, like Rome, is famous for its beautiful fountains.

Erstatning
for Rom

In the dream I have to find some sort of substitute for Rome (cf. chapter V., B.) from among localities which are known to me.  Note

Sindssyge asylet.
 

Near the Porta Romana of Siena we saw a large, brightly-lit building, which we learned was the Manicomio, the insane asylum. Shortly before the dream I had heard that a co-religionist had been forced to resign a position, which he had secured with great effort, in a State asylum.
"Auf Geseres" Our interest is aroused by the speech: "Auf Geseres,"
hilsen where one might expect, from the situation continued throughout the dream, "Auf Wiedersehen" (Au revoir), and by its quite meaningless antithesis: "Auf Ungeseres." (Un is a prefix meaning "not.")
Geseres According to information received from Hebrew scholars, Geseres is a genuine Hebrew word, derived from the verb goiser, and may best be rendered by "ordained sufferings, fated disaster." From its employment in the Jewish jargon one would take it to mean "wailing and lamentation."
Ungeseres Ungeseres is a coinage of my own, and is the first to attract my attention, but for the present it baffles me.

fordelen ved ungeseres

The little observation at the end of the dream- that Ungeseres indicates an advantage over Geseres- opens the way to the associations, and therewith to understanding.
saltet - usaltet  This relation holds good in the case of caviar; the unsalted kind is more highly prized than the salted. "Caviar to the general"- "noble passions." Herein lies concealed a jesting allusion to a member of my household, of whom I hope- for she is younger than I- that she will watch over the future of my children; this, too, agrees with the fact that another member of my household, our worthy nurse, is clearly indicated by the nurse (or nun) of the dream.
gesauert -ungesauert But a connecting-link is wanting between the pair, salted- unsalted and Geseres- Ungeseres. This is to be found in gesauert and ungesauert (leavened and unleavened).
usyret brød  In their flight or exodus from Egypt the children of Israel had not time to allow their dough to become leavened, and in commemoration of this event they eat unleavened bread at Passover to this day.

pigen der spørger om vej

Here, too, I can find room for the sudden association which occurred to me in this part of the analysis. I remembered how we, my friend from Berlin and myself, had strolled about the streets of Breslau, a city which was strange to us, during the last days of Easter. A little girl asked me the way to a certain street; I had to tell her that I did not know it; I then remarked to my friend, "I hope that later on in life the child will show more perspicacity in selecting the persons whom she allows to direct her."
Dr. Herod  Shortly afterwards a sign caught my eye: "Dr. Herod, consulting hours..." I said to myself: "I hope this colleague does not happen to be a children's specialist."

Kyklopen særegenhed i forhold til kroppens symmetri 

Meanwhile, my friend had been developing his views on the biological significance of bilateral symmetry, and had begun a sentence with the words: "If we had only one eye in the middle of the forehead, like Cyclops..." This leads us to the speech of the professor in the preliminary dream: "My son, the myopic."
  And now I have been led to the chief source for Geseres.
  Many years ago, when this son of Professor M's, who is today an independent thinker, was still sitting on his school-bench, he contracted an affection of the eye which, according to the doctor, gave some cause for anxiety. He expressed the opinion that so long as it was confined to one eye it was of no great significance, but that if it should extend to the other eye it would be serious. The affection subsided in the one eye without leaving any ill effects; shortly afterwards, however, the same symptoms did actually appear in the other eye.
  The boy's terrified mother immediately summoned the physician to her distant home in the country. But the doctor was now of a different opinion (took the other side). "What sort of 'Geseres' is this you are making?" he asked the mother, impatiently. "If one side got well, the other will, too." And so it turned out.
Personlig betydning And now as to the connection between this and myself and my family.

The school-bench

The school-bench   upon which Professor M's son learned his first lessons has become the property of my eldest son; it was given to him by the boy's mother, and it is into his mouth that I put the words of farewell in the dream.   note
  One of the wishes that may be connected with this transference may now be readily guessed. This school-bench is intended by its construction to guard the child from becoming shortsighted and one-sided.

frygten for
énsidighed

Hence myopia (and behind it the Cyclops), and the discussion about bilateralism. The fear of one-sidedness has a twofold significance; it might mean not only physical one-sidedness, but intellectual one-sidedness also.  note
   Does it not seem as though the scene in the dream, with all its craziness, were contradicting precisely this anxiety? When on the one hand the boy has spoken his words of farewell, on the other hand he calls out the very opposite, as though to establish an equilibrium. He is acting, as it were, in obedience to bilateral symmetry!
Noter  

 school-bench- detail from
 R.B.Kitaj: The Jewish School
 

 

  The Eye of the Cyclops - detail from
R.B.Kitaj: The Jewish School
The teacher fears, that he cannot save the children.
The eye of the Cyclops: Fear for
the child to becoming shortsighted and one-sided.
 

Odysseus and his men blinding the cyclops Polyphemus
en.wikipedia.org/.../Polyphemus

Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams, 1911 p. 106
Rome Freud Interpretation... p. 106 In another case I note the fact that although the wish that excites the dream is a contemporary wish it is nevertheless greatly reinforced by memories of childhood. I refer to a series of dreams which are based on the longing to go to Rome. For a long time to come I shall probably have to satisfy this longing by means of dreams, since, at the season of the year when I should be able to travel, Rome is to be avoided for reasons of health. *
  (continued) Thus I once dreamt that I saw the Tiber and the bridge of Sant' Angelo from the window of a railway carriage; presently the train started, and I realized that I had never entered the city at all. The view that appeared in the dream was modelled after a well-known engraving which I had casually noticed the day before in the drawing-room of one of my patients. In another dream someone took me up a hill and showed me Rome half shrouded in mist, and so distant that I was astonished at the distinctness of the view. The content of this dream is too rich to be fully reported here.

Freud udskifter det forjættede land (Jerusalem) med Rom

(continued) The motive, "to see the promised land afar," is here easily recognizable. The city which I thus saw in the mist is Lubeck; the original  of the hill is the Gleichenberg. In a third dream I am at last in Rome. To my disappointment the scenery is anything but urban: it consists of a little stream of black water, on one side of which are black rocks, while on the other are meadows with large white flowers. I notice a certain Herr Zucker (with whom I am superficially acquainted), and resolve to ask him to show me the way into the city.
  (continued) It is obvious that I am trying in vain to see in my dream a city which I have never seen in my waking life. If I resolve the landscape into its elements, the white flowers point to Ravenna, which is known to me, and which once, for a time, replaced Rome as the capital of Italy. In the marshes around Ravenna we had found the most beautiful water-lilies in the midst of black pools of water; the dream makes them grow in the meadows, like the narcissi of our own Aussee, because we found it so troublesome to cull them from the water.

Porta romana, Siena

Theodor Herzl
 



litteratur: Leif Ludwig Albertsen: Theodor Herzl som dramatiker (Augias)