ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NUMBER-DREAMS[165]
The symbolism of numbers which greatly engaged the imaginative
philosophy of earlier centuries has again acquired a fresh interest from
the analytic investigations of Freud and his school. But in the material
of number-dreams we no longer discover conscious puzzles of symbolic
concatenations of numbers but the unconscious roots of the symbolism of
numbers. There is scarcely anything quite fundamentally new to offer
in this sphere since the presentations of Freud, Adler and Stekel. It
must here suffice to corroborate their experiences by recording parallel
cases. I have had under observation a few cases of this kind which are
worth reporting for their general interest.
The first three instances are from a middle-aged married man whose
conflict of the moment was an extra-conjugal love affair. The piece
of the dream from which I take the symbolised number is: _in front of
the manager his general subscription. The manager comments on the high
number of the subscription. It reads 2477._
The analysis of the dream brings out a rather ungentlemanly reckoning up
of the expense of the affair, which is foreign to the generous nature
of the dreamer, and which the unconscious makes use of as a resistance
to this affair. The preliminary interpretation is, therefore, that the
number has some financial importance and origin. A rough estimate of the
expenses so far leads to a number which in fact approaches 2477 francs;
a more exact reckoning, however, gives 2387 francs, which could be only
arbitrarily translated into 2477. I then left the numbers to the free
association of the patient; it occurs to him that the figure in the
dream should be divided as 24-77. Perhaps it is a telephone number; this
supposition proves incorrect. The next association is that it is the
total of some numbers. A reminiscence then occurs to him that he once
told me that he had celebrated the 100th birthday of his mother and
himself when his mother was 65 and he was 35 years old. (Their birthdays
are on the same day.)
In this way the patient arrived at the following series of
associations:--
He is born on 26 II.
His mistress 28 VIII.
His wife 1 III.
His mother (his father is long dead) 26 II.
His two children 29 IV.
and 13 VII.
The patient is born II. 75.
His mistress VIII. 85.
He is now 36 years old, his mistress 25.
If this series of associations is written in the usual figures, the
following addition is arrived at:--
26. II. = 262
28. VIII. = 288
1. III. = 13
26. II. = 262
29. IV. = 294
13. VII. = 137
II. 75. = 275
VIII. 85 = 885
25 = 25
36 = 36
----
2477
This series, which includes all the members of his family, gives the
number 2477.
This construction led to a deeper layer of the dream's meaning. The
patient is most closely united to his family, but on the other hand very
much in love. This situation provokes a severe conflict. The detailed
description of the manager's appearance (which I leave out for the sake
of brevity) pointed to the analyst, from whom the patient rightly fears
and desires firm control and criticism of his condition of dependence
and bondage.
The dream which followed soon afterwards, reported in brief, runs: _The
analyst asks the patient what he actually does at his mistress'? to
which the patient replied he plays there, and that indeed on a very high
number, on 152. The analyst remarks: "You are sadly cheated."_
The analysis displayed again a repressed tendency to reckon up the
expense of the affair. The amount spent monthly was close on 152 francs,
it was from 148-158 francs. The remark that he was being cheated
alludes to the point at issue in the difficulties of the patient with
his mistress. She maintains that he had deflowered her; he, on the
contrary, is firmly convinced that she was not a virgin, and that she
had already been seduced by some one else at the time when he was
seeking her favours and she was refusing him. The expression "number"
leads to the associations: number of the gloves, calibre-number. From
there the next step was to the fact that he recognized, at the first
coitus, a noticeable width of the opening instead of the expected
resistance of the hymen. To him, this is proof of the deception. The
unconscious naturally makes use of this opportunity as an effective
means of opposition to the relationship. 152 proves at first refractory
to further analysis. The number on a subsequent occasion aroused the
really not remote association, "house-number." Then came this series of
associations. When the patient first knew her the lady lived at X Street
No. 17, then Y Street No. 129, then Z Street No. 48.
Here the patient thought that he had clearly gone far beyond 152, the
total being 194. It then occurred to him that the lady had removed
from No. 48 Z Street at his instigation for certain reasons; it must
therefore run 194 - 48 = 146. She now lives in A Street No. 6, therefore
146 + 6 = 152.
The following dream was obtained during a later part of the analysis.
The patient dreamt that _he had received an account from the analyst
in which he was charged interest for delay in payment from the period
September 3rd to 29th. The interest on the total of 315 francs was 1
franc._
Under this reproach of meanness and avariciousness levelled at the
analyst, the patient covered, as analysis proved, a violent unconscious
envy. Diverse things in the life of the analyst can arouse the patient's
envy; one fact here in particular had recently made a marked impression.
His physician had received an addition to the family. The disturbed
relations between the patient and his wife unfortunately does not permit
such an expectation in his case. Hence his ground for envy and invidious
comparisons.
As before, the analysis of 315 produces a separation into 3--1--5. To
three he associates--his doctor has three children, just lately there is
one in addition. He himself would have five children were all living; as
it is he has 3 - 1 = 2 living; for three of the children were stillborn.
The symbolism of the numbers is not exhausted by these associations.
The patient remarks that the period from 3rd to 29th September contains
twenty-six days. His next thought is to add this and the other figures
of the dream:
26
315
1
___
342
___
With 342 he carries out the same operation as on 315, splitting it into
3--4--2. Whereas before it came out that his doctor had three children,
and then had another, and the patient had five, now it runs: the doctor
had three children, and now has four, patient has only two. He remarks
on this that the second figure sounds like a rectification in contrast
with the wish-fulfilment of the first.
The patient, who had discovered this explanation for himself without
my help, declared himself satisfied. His physician, however, was not;
to him it seemed that the above disclosures did not exhaust the rich
possibilities that determined the unconscious images. The patient had,
for instance, added to the figure five that of the stillborn children;
one was born in the 9th month and two in the 7th. He also emphasised the
fact that his wife had had two miscarriages, one in the 5th week and the
other in the 7th. Adding these figures together we get the determination
of the number 26.
Child of 7 months
" " 7 "
" " 9 "
__
23 "
2 miscarriages (5 + 7 weeks) 3 "
__
26 "
__
It seems as if the number twenty-six were determined by the number of
the lost times of pregnancy. This time (twenty-six days) denotes, in the
dream, a delay for which the patient was charged one franc interest.
He has, in fact, suffered a delay through the lost pregnancies, for
his doctor has, during the time the patient has known him, surpassed
him with one child. One franc must be one child. We have already seen
the tendency of the patient to add together all his children, even the
dead ones, in order to outdo his rival. The thought that his physician
had outdone him by one child could easily react immediately upon the
determination of 1. We will therefore follow up this tendency of the
patient and carry on his play with figures, by adding to the figure 26
the two complete pregnancies of nine months each.
26 + 9 + 9 = 44
If we follow the tendency to split up the numbers we get 2 + 6 and 4 +
4, two groups of figures which have only this in common, that each group
gives 8 by addition. These numbers are, as we must notice, composed
entirely of the months of pregnancy given by the patient. Compare with
them those groups of figures which contain the information as to
the doctor's fecundity, viz. 315 and 342; it is to be noted that the
resemblance lies in their sum-total giving 9 : 9 - 8 = 1. It looks as
if here likewise the notion about the differentiation of 1 were carried
out. As the patient remarked, 315 seems thus a wish-fulfilment, 342 on
the other hand a rectification. An ingenious fancy playing round will
discover the following difference between the two numbers:
3 × 1 × 5 = 15. 3 × 4 × 2 = 24. 24 - 15 = 9
Here again we come upon the important figure 9, which neatly combines
the reckoning of the pregnancies and births.
It is difficult to say where the borderline of play begins; necessarily
so, for the unconscious product is the creation of a sportive fancy, of
that psychic impulse out of which play itself arises. It is repugnant
to the scientific mind to have serious dealings with this element of
play, which on all sides loses itself in the vague. But it must be never
forgotten that the human mind has for thousands of years amused itself
with just this kind of game; it were therefore nothing wonderful if this
historic past again compelled admission in dream to similar tendencies.
The patient pursues in his waking life similar phantastic tendencies
about figures, as is seen in the fact already mentioned of the
celebration of the 100th birthday. Their presence in the dream therefore
need not surprise us. In a single example of unconscious determination
exact proofs are often lacking, but the sum of our experiences entitles
us to rely upon the accuracy of the individual discoveries. In the
investigation of free creative phantasy we are in the region, almost
more than anywhere else, of broad empiricism; a high measure of
discretion as to the accuracy of individual results is consequently
required, but this in nowise obliges us to pass over in silence what is
active and living, for fear of being execrated as unscientific. There
must be no parleying with the superstition-phobia of the modern mind;
for this itself is a means by which the secrets of the unconscious are
kept veiled.
It is of special interest to see how the problems of the patient are
mirrored in the unconscious of his wife. His wife had the following
dream: She dreamt, and this is the whole dream: "_Luke_ 137." The
analysis of the number gives the following. To 1 she associates: The
doctor has another child. He had three. If all her children were living
she would have 7; now she has only 3 - 1 = 2. But she desires 1 + 3 +
7 = 11 (a twin number, 1 and 1), which expresses her wish that her two
children had been pairs of twins, for then she would have reached the
same number of children as the doctor. Her mother once had twins. The
hope of getting a child by her husband is very precarious; this had
for a long time turned her ideas in the unconscious towards a second
marriage. Other phantasies pictured her as "done with," _i.e._ having
reached the climacteric at 44. She is now 33 years old, therefore in
11 years she will have reached her 44th year. This is an important
period as her father died in his 44th year. Her phantasy of the 44th
year contains the idea of the death of her father. The emphasis on the
death of her father corresponds to the repressed phantasy of the death
of her husband, who is the obstacle to a second marriage. At this place
the material belonging to the dream "_Luke_ 137" comes in to solve the
conflict. The dreamer is, one soon discovers, in no wise well up in her
Bible, she has not read it for an incredible time, she is not at all
religious. It would be therefore quite purposeless to have recourse to
associations here. The dreamer's ignorance of her Bible is so great that
she did not even know that the citation "_Luke_ 137" could only refer to
the Gospel of St. Luke. When she turned up the New Testament she came
to the Acts of the Apostles. As chapter i. has only 26 verses and not
37, she took the 7th verse, "It is not for you to know the times or the
seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power."
But if we turn to Luke i. 37, we find the Annunciation of the Virgin.
Verse 35. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Verse 36. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a
son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called
barren.
Verse 37. For with God nothing shall be impossible.
The necessary continuation of the analysis of "_Luke_ 137" demanded the
looking up of Luke xiii. 7, where it says:
Verse 6. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he
came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.
Verse 7. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these
three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it
down; why cumbereth it the ground?
The fig-tree, which from antiquity has been a symbol of the male
genital, is to be cut down on account of its unfruitfulness. This
passage is in complete accord with innumerable sadistic phantasies of
the dreamer, concerned with the cutting or biting off of the penis.
The relation to her husband's unfruitful organ is obvious. That she
withdraws her libido from her husband is clear for he is impotent as
regard herself; it is equally clear that she undergoes regression to the
father ("which the father hath put in his own power") and identifies
herself with her mother who had twins.[166] By thus advancing her age
the dreamer places her husband in regard to herself in the position of
a son or boy, of an age at which impotency is normal. Furthermore, the
desire to overcome her husband is easily understood from, and amply
evidenced in her earlier analysis. It is therefore only a confirmation
of what has been already said, if, following up the matter of "_Luke_
137," we find in Luke vii. verse 12, Now when he came nigh to the gate
of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of
his mother, and she was a widow. (13) And when the Lord saw her, he had
compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. (14) And he came and
touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young
man, I say unto thee, Arise.
In the particular psychological situation of the dreamer, the allusion
to the resurrection presents a delightful meaning as the cure of her
husband's impotency. Then the whole problem would be solved. There is no
need for me to point out in so many words the numerous wish-fulfilments
contained in this material; they are obvious to the reader.
The important combination of the symbol "_Luke_ 137" must be conceived
as cryptomnesia, since the dreamer is quite unversed in the Bible.
Both Flournoy[167] and myself[168] have already drawn attention to the
important effects of this phenomenon. So far as one can be humanly
certain, the question of any manipulation of the material with intent to
deceive does not come into consideration in this case. Those well posted
in psychoanalysis will be able to allay any such suspicion simply from
the disposition and setting of the material as a whole.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 165: "Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse," 1911, p. 567.
Translator, Dr. M. D. Eder.]
[Footnote 166: The husband's principal conflict is a pronounced
mother-complex.]
[Footnote 167: Flournoy, "Des Indes à la Planète Mars." Idem: "Nouvelles
observations sur un cas de somnambulisme," _Arch. de Pyschol._, vol. I.]
[Footnote 168: See chapter I, p. 86.]