Übertragung (IV)

[A continuation of the saga begun here.]

A:  Nun also.  We begin.

B (evidently uncomfortable):  There is … something about that dream … I didn’t tell you …

[A, to B’s surprise, and to the astonishment of us all, waves this offer away, almost with contempt.]

A:  Yes, yes.  Now that you have had time to think it over, and confabulate a bit, you have come up with a nice little story for Herr Doktor Freud, that will make him happy, or sad, or whatever it may be, and will leave your precious Unconscious alone.  But that is without interest.  We are concerned with the latent content of the dream, not the manifest content -- let alone with just-so-stories confected after the fact to explain-away the latter.  No, the only means of penetration is via Free Association, in the light of the day-remnants …. but by now, it has been several days, and those remnants have grown stale.

No, what you need to tell me now  is what you dreamt last night.

B (upset; stammers something indistinct)

A:  Come come -- it is obvious that you dreamt something.  Out with it.

B:  It was … Nothing.  A trifle.

A (as though channeling some generous host):  Come on, out with it!  Don’t worry about boring me -- I get paid for my time.

[And if the patients only knew, how often the Herr Doktor was bored;  but, not with this patient:  there was too much at stake.]

B (sighs theatrically, and then says, smugly):  It was the most boring dream in the world -- even you won’t be able to make anything of it.  There weren’t even any people in it.

A (responds with silence -- a sentence with no words in it)

B:  I dreamt of … flowers.

A: …

B: Simply, a ring or wreath of flowers, ...

A: …

B:  … pink ones, white ones …

A: …

B: … in a circle … around the edge of a plate.

A: …  …

B (squirms around on the couch to see if the therapist is listening, then resumes his usual posture)

A:  Surrounding …

B:  Surrounding nothing!  Just a hole -- a gap -- an empty spot!

A (pauses, then asks in a low but distinct voice):  And -- how did the Luger … get into that empty spot?

A (whirls):  You … devil!

B (with a sigh): Dás aufzuklären  bedarf einer eingehenderen Darstellung.  And so, until next time.

[Hier fortgesetzt.]