Studies in the psychology of sex. Vol. VII, Eonism and other supplementary studies / by Havelock Ellis.

  • Havelock Ellis
Date:
[1928], ©1928
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Studies in the psychology of sex. Vol. VII, Eonism and other supplementary studies / by Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    252/564 (page 240)
    problem to unravel, such as would more especially allure the dream-analyst. The superficial simplicity of the phenomena is, I need not add, altogether an advantage when we are concern¬ ing ourselves exclusively with questions of method. Mrs. N., the subject in question, is a lady of French birth on both sides, born and bred in France, but for many years resident in London. She was thirty-two years of age at the period in question, married and the mother of children. She was trained in an Fcole Normale for the teaching profession, but since marriage the economic conditions of her life have often been hard and trying. During the whole of the period covered by the dreams, her husband, an officer in the army, was absent in a remote country; owing to incompatibility of temperament she was meditating a complete separation. The dreams, often noted down during the night and written out as soon as possible after awaking in the morning, were nearly all written in French, and inevitably lose in translation; for dream- synthesis, however, that loss is less significant than it would be in dream-analysis where the actual word is often of funda¬ mental importance. For the same reason, that we are not here concerned with analysis, the dream-narratives have sometimes been slightly condensed in translation, care being taken to omit nothing that could fairly be regarded as likely to be significant. The subject is a woman of high intelligence, who took a real interest in the experiment, and tried to carry it out faithfully. It is possible to rely on her complete frankness, though the effort involved was sometimes a little trying to her. In or¬ dinary life, it may be said, she is rather shy and reserved, though she rarely fails to secure the affectionate esteem of those with whom she comes in habitual social contact. Dream I. Night of 28th March: A few days after the beginning of monthly period. An hour before going to bed I had a light supper with a glass of sherry, which is contrary to my usual habits. I liked the sherry but it went slightly to my head, giving me an agreeable sensation of pleasure and quiet gaiety, rather strange to me in these sorrowful days [of war time]. When the memory of the dream begins I was seated on the ground, I know not where, for I see nothing, only a gate behind me,