The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-11-15
Edwin Tenaey Brewster in Mcc

~ TEADILY, of late yes.rs, expert opin-
ion has been swinging away from
~ the opinion that visions of the night
are meaningless phantasmagoria' worthy
of attention only from the uncuitlValeo
and superstitious. In fact, scientihc ~
terest in dreams begins to recall the gooo
old DAYS when ACKNOWLEDGMENT, KING Oh
BABYLON. after "seein' things at night
called together 1.-THE magicians ana lhe
astrologers, and the sorcerers, ana the
Chaldeans'' of his realm, to make known
the Interpretation thereof, and, by way Oh
stimulating their psychological insight,
nromised to cut off all their heads II they
missed.
The one man who has carried furcnest
this Typographical survey OF Dreamlahu
is sigmund Freud, extraordinary profess
or of nervous pathology at the University
of Viepna, and probably today the most
discussed man in his field in the entire
scientific world.
But to come to particulars. Ernest
Jones' NJ. D., of the University OF To-
ronto, a disciple of Freud's. encountered
the following: A woman of 81, with a
husband but no children, dreams chat she
is sitting in a grandstand, as If waiting
to watch some spectacle. A military oano
approaches, playing gay martial ar.
Behind it comes a funeral train, with the
casket resting on draped gun carriage
The dead man appears TO be certain Mr.
x, a somewhat unimportant person, still
alive. whom the dreamer knows in real
life only slightly.
Behind the dead man followed his
brother and his three sisters, all dressed
in gay clothing and exhibiting anything
but the grief proper to the occasion. The
brother. in addition, dances about like
a savage waving his arms and exhibit
ing extravagant joy, while yucca tree
with number of young blossoms on 1t
grows out of his back.
The dream is utterly absurd, just such
an absurdity as occurs to any of us any
night in the week. But no dream, the
Freudians hold, is ever devoid of mean
ing, If only one can get hold of it at the
right end. Most dreams, they maintain,
reveal the deepest secrets of the heart.
The woman, therefore, is cross examined
concerning the various single elements
ample-what does she know about yucca
trees? That proves to be simple enough.
She has travelled in the west and seen
the marriage ceremonies of the Indians
in which the yucca always plays part
not very different from that of the orange
blossoms with US. The natives carry yuc-
ca trees in procession, dancing iine MT.
KS brother in the dream, while the plos-
SONS of the tree symbolic offspring.
Apparently, then, the dream has some
thing to do with marriage and children.
Next it transpires that the dreamer her
self bitterly regrets having had no chill
dren of her own. For this she Wames her
husband. whose life has been by n0means
exemplary and whose addiction to alcohol
has ruined both his health and his career,
and completely alienated his wife's affec-
ton
Mr.. X too, though but an Indifferent ac-
auaintance, turns out to have certain
curious resembances to the dreamers de-
linouent husband. Like him, he mas a
brother and three sisters. Like him, also,
he started life with high promise, and
fell bv the wayside for lack of moral
stamina. In short, the two men are so
far alike that the thought of either would
naturally suggest the other, to one VINO
knew both.
Bu. Mr.. is a civilian, who would not
be having military funeral; the nus
band is an officer of volunteers, VINO
might. Moreover, though Mr.. X really has
wife, she keeps .conspieuously out of the
dream.
The dream funeral then, is really that
of the dreamer's unloved husband in the
g;ise of Mr.. X, who resembles him; while
the CAV music and the gay clothes sym
holize the emotions of the would-be
widow As for the exuberant brother OF
Mr.. X, he is. in real life. former lover
of the dreamer. whom she threw over In
tit OF pique, that both have regretted
ever since.
i So at last the latent meaning of the
dream comes out II her husband should
die, nobody would be sorry-least of all
herself and Mr.. KS brother. The ridic-
u,ous dream sums up whole life tragedy
"a tragedy moreover, some aspects OF
which the dreamer would never willingly
reveal to any human soul.
| But why, demands the bewildered slzep-
j tic. AT this point. if an unhappy wife
wants to dream that her sot of hus-
band is dead, that she is married again
and is bringing UP the children Of de-
cent man. why doesn't she go ahead and
dream It like sensible woman, instead
of trying to conceal a natural desire I'M
fder ridiculous symbolism? Because re
plies the Freudian, her conscience will
not let her. She will not admit. even to
herself, that she wants to marry the oNnel
+, man, still less that she wishes that 1ieI
husband were dead. so that she might
When the idea enters her mind, she puts