A year ago or so a Chicago woman sued her husband for divorce because he had been, while talking in his sleep, saying endearing things to his stenographer. That woman was both right and wrong.
The fact that her husband dreamt of his stenographer was evidence that the girl was “on his mind,” consciously or unconsciously. But we could not, without examining the husband’s unconscious reactions decide to what extent the stenographer herself, as a distinct personality, obsessed him.
Every man is more or less of a fetichist, irresistibly attracted by certain details of the feminine body, for ever seeking those characteristics and appreciating them above all others wherever found. When only one such characteristic and no other attracts a man, the man is known as a perverse fetichist.
When the various fetiches which attract a man are found in one woman, let us say red hair, dark eyes and a slender build, we have the foundation for a passionate and durable love.
When only one of those characteristics is found in a woman, that characteristic is bound to attract the man’s attention regardless of the interest or lack of interest the woman may present for him. A red haired woman, while otherwise totally unattractive, might, to a red hair fetichist, symbolize the beauty he seeks and intrude into his dream pictures, although she personally could not attract him sexually in his waking state.
Every one has had the experience of embracing in dreams some person who in the waking state would not inspire the dreamer with any desire. If we analyse carefully the appearance of the “ghostly love” we will in every case notice that he or she is endowed with a certain characteristic which is one of the constituting elements of our “love image.”
The Chicago woman should have taken her troubles to an analyst, not to a judge.
I have dwelt at length on that example to show a few of the pitfalls which threaten the careless interpreter of dreams.
The second rule I would formulate is this: Do not try to interpret one dream. Wait until you have collected a large number of dreams, let us say, twenty or thirty of them.
Then classify them according to their character as follows: