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THREE NOTES
by

JOAN RIVIERE.

A BURGLAR DREAM

Patient was a girl of 28, suffering from severe hysteria (with

a suspicion of melancholia). She was often sleepless and had
anxiety attacks at night. The dream occurred after a year of ana-
lysis, during which she had many burglar-dreams, of which she
had learnt the symbolic meaning. Patient slept at the time in a
room alone on the first floor with a sash window. DREAM:
I was in my room in bed at night and could not sleep. I thought
I keard burglars in the garden outside. I became frightened and got
up to look out of tlu window} which was a Frenchwindow and open.
That's all I remember, but there were two girls asleep in the room.
or at any rate} two people,' one oj them was a girl I know.
1. "A girl I know" was a girl who worked in the same
business as herself. On the preceding day this girl had been talking
to the patient of her approaching marriage, and had mentioned
that she was going to wear as a bride her mother's wedding dress
and veil.
2. Patient could not remember ever sleeping in a room with
two people, but, when pressed, she said that as child of 8, she
had slept for a few months in the bedroom of her. father and
stepmother. Although she had had a year of analysis I had never
heard this fact before. The father's second marriage took place when
she, an only child, was about 7, and when she was 8 she came to
live with them from her grandmother's.
I think the "French window" which was open may be a sym-
bolic reference to the fact that before coming to live with her
parents, when she was about 6, she was sexually assaulted by a
young man, and had always doubted since whether she were virgo
200
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THREE NOTES 201

intacta. The question of the hymen and virginity was exceedingly

.important in her neurosis.
The "mother's dress and veil" may be over-determined and also
refer to this>, Self-depreciation was, of course, a main symptom,
and clothes were associated with much feeling and conflictaltogether.
The dream, with its two associations, is remarkable for the
simplicity of its representation of the Oedipus-wish, to take the
mother's (and stepmother's) place as the father's bride.
Her previous sexual experience must have added stimulus to
the revival of this wish while sleeping in the parent's bedroom.

"HIDE-AND-SEEK"

Patient was recalling how he and his brothers used to play

"hide-and-seek" on winter evenings, with their father, all over
the house, which was a large country mansion with many stairs,
passages and attics. The father was an active powerful man,
much admired and envied by the patient, a delicate feeble boy.
Patient recalled that he had always had a belief, which he thought
was shared by his brothers, that the father had an unfair advantage
over them, partly on account of his agility· and strength, but
chiefly on account of his supposed use of a secret staircase, which
the boys were not allowed into and had never seen. This was
supposed to lead into an attic on an upper floor and accounted
for the father's sudden appearances and rapid movements about
the house.
I pointed out to the patient the symbolism of the house, of
which the father had such secret and familiar knowledge and use,
and he then further recalled to his own amazement, that according
to the childish fantasy, these stairs were supposed to lead out
of his mother's bedroom, either from inside a cupboard or from
some concealed opening. "None of us ever knew where it went up
from."
Curiosity and exhibitionism were very marked in the patient
leading to a love for travel and adventure, acting, conjuring, and
hypnotism, and to fantasies of himself as wizard and magician. (The
father's magical performances.)
I On the symbolic relation of "veil" to "virginity" Bee Storfer: Marias

Jungfrlluliche Mutterschaft, 1914, S. 49.

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202 JOAN RIVIERE

LAPSUS CALAMI: TOOTH·PULLING AND CASTRATION

From an Autobiography, written as a novel by a girl of 25 with a snake-
phobia, before analysis.

Extract: "I'll scratch and bite them all," she remarked another
time when Mrs. Baines tactlessly started on the same unpleasant
subject. "Then I hope your father would have every one of your
teeth pulled out" said her companion sternly. Pan turned abso-
lutely sick with horror. "Of course he wouldn't" she said. "[ohnnle's
father" continued Mrs. Baines, "said that if ever he did such a
wicked thing as to bite anyone, he'd take him to the dentist and
have every one of his teeth pulled out." "It isn't wicked to bite.'!
"In God's sight it is", replied the other, and there the conver-
sation ended, but Pan could not get the idea out of her head. Of
course Johnnie's father could not really have meant what he said,
she reasoned. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
would have him up if he attempted it, and no respectable dentist
would perform such an outrage. But that anyone should threaten
to do such a revolting thing was positively disgusting. Imagine some
one deliberately cutting away part of another person's body and
causing them fearful pain, and handicapping them for life, and a
parent his own child too. Never again did she threaten to bite
anyone in Mrs. Baines' hearing for fear that the sickening subject
should arise again, and when on one occasion she forgot and added
"I'd bite" after "I'd scratch" her heart stood still with dread lest
Mrs. Baines should once more express her sentiments on the
question, and she quickly changed the subject so that the latter
had no time to do so.
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