“I cannot understand it. I have never given him one minute’s thought.”
“And never anything happened between you?”
“No ... with him, never. Although he is attentive to me and I know he likes me. I love my sister too dearly to treat her that way, although my sister is not faithful either, and things like that don’t matter with her. It seems to be in the family. Still, I would rather have nothing to do with my brother-in-law. The dream is nonsense, I have forgotten the most of it. It was much longer.”
Observing that she tries to avoid the dream I insist that she should try and recall it as nearly as possible. “Well, then,” she continues her narrative, “the dream was as follows:
”I am in bed with my brother-in-law. It seems I am the man and he the woman. He has no mustache and lies under me. Suddenly he changes and it is my sister and I kiss her passionately. ‘You see,’ she says to me, ‘you should have done this long ago and you would be well.’”
I inquire about her relations to the sister and learn that she has not been in touch with her for the past few months and that during this time she has grown more nervous and her craving for men also grew worse than ever. “When I am with my sister I seem to forget men more easily. She is a very spiritual person and extremely charming. If you should ever meet her you would fall in love with her.”
When one hears such talk, and one hears it rather often, the diagnosis is easy: the narrator is in love with that person and therefore thinks it natural that everybody should fall in love with the person in question.[20]
Further inquiries disclose that she was preoccupied with but one thought: her sister. She always looks upon her sister as the best dressed, most spirited and most charming person she had ever known.
Why was the woman no longer on friendly terms with her sister?
Because, she claims, her sister is egotistical and cares nothing for her. She was lying ill for a few weeks and her sister let her lie there and took no more notice of her than if she were a dog; she wanted her sister’s company when she went out, she could not do her shopping alone but she could not get her sister to go along. So she had to go around with a woman friend who was a disgusting and vulgar person. She ought to be ashamed to show herself in such company; if she were in her husband’s place, she would not tolerate it.... After all, it would not be so very sinful if she did become intimate with her brother-in-law; her sister was not true to him and kept up relations with an army lieutenant but the poor fool does not see it and thinks the army officer is his best friend....