Mrs. A. in relating these dreams, shivered all over and was afraid, as if actually living the dream experience over again. “It was this woman who caught me in her arms, kissed me, and embraced me, and did not let me go, until my screams brought friends and my father; they took me away from her by force.”
Gradually some more dreams emerged. “I dreamt some time ago that the woman came to me and spilled hot water on me. Another time I dreamed that I was in the insane asylum; she came out, told me she was well; I was greatly frightened and ran away.”
Mrs. A. then became quiet. After a while she began to relate a series of dreams. Some time ago she dreamed that the woman entered the room where her father was and ran up to him, evidently with the intention of hurting him. Her father ran away, and she hid herself in a closet in the next room. “I also dreamt that the woman was shadowing me in an alley. She wanted to get hold of me, while I was trying to get away from her. I turned round, and she gave me such a fierce look. I ran and she could not catch me. I should die, if she catches me. In one of my dreams about her, I saw people putting cold water on her, and I could hear her scream. It was awful. I dreamt I went upstairs, opened the door and met her. I was badly frightened. I jumped out of the window.”
This is an extract from a letter sent to me by the patient’s husband: “ ... She had another attack. It did not last long, and it was not severe. She dreamt several times a week. I shall try to relate them as accurately as possible. She dreamt that I left the room for a while. Our baby was asleep in the next room. All of a sudden she heard baby cry out: ‘Mamma, I am afraid.’ She told the baby to come to her as she herself was afraid to leave the bed. Baby came to her. The child looked frightened, her face pale with fear, exclaiming ‘Mamma, a devil.’ As the child cried out, my wife heard a noise in the room, something moved close by. She became scared. It seemed to her that something terrible and unknown was after her. She wanted to scream for help, but could not. A hand was stretched out after her to catch her. She woke up in great terror. Another time she dreamt that she was in a hall way. She saw a woman and became frightened. It was the same crazy woman. My wife is exceedingly nervous, and is in fear that something awful is going to happen to her or to the family.”
A rich, subconscious dream-life of agonizing fears was thus revealed, a life of terrors of which the patient was unaware in her waking state. The dreams referred to the same central nucleus, the shock and fears of her early childhood. Worries about self and family kept up and intensified the present fear states.
Her selfishness has no bounds, her fears have no limits. The symptoms of the “fear set,” as in all other psychopathic cases, took their origin in the impulse of self-preservation with its accompanying fundamental fear instinct.
This patient was cured after a long course of hypnotic treatment.