by analysis the unconscious motives that might be presumed to exist in these death-dreams just as in others.
Do not now urge the objection that what I have just related is valueless because negative experiences prove as little here as they do in less occult matters. I am well aware of that and have not adduced these instances with any intention whatever of proving anything or of surreptitiously influencing you in any particular way. My sole purpose was to justify the limitations of my own material.
Another fact certainly seems to me of more significance, namely, that during my twenty-seven years of work as an analyst I have never been in the position to observe a truly telepathic dream in any of my patients. The people among whom my practice lay certainly formed a good collection of very neurotic and 'highly sensitive' temperaments; many of them have related to me most remarkable incidents in their previous life on which they based a belief in mysterious occult influences. Events such as accidents or illnesses of near relatives, in particular the death of one of the parents, have often enough happened during the treatment and interrupted it; but not on one single occasion did these occurrences, eminently suitable as they were, afford me the opportunity of registering a single telepathic dream, although the treatment extended over six months or a year or more. It may be of interest to some one to attempt an explanation of this fact, limiting as it does again the material at my disposal. You will see that any such explanation would not affect the subject of this paper.
Nor does it embarrass me to be asked why I have made no use of the abundant supply of telepathic dreams that have been published. I should not have had far to seek, since the publications of the English as well as of the American Society for Psychical Research are accessible to me as a member of both societies. In all these communications no attempt is ever made to subject such dreams to analytic investigation, which would be our first interest in such cases[1]. Moreover, you will soon perceive that for the purposes of this paper one single dream will serve well enough.
- ↑ In two writings of W. Stekel (Der Telepathische Traum, no date, and Die Sprache des Traumes, Zweite Auflage, 1922) there are at least attempts to apply the analytic technique to alleged telepathic dreams. The author expresses his belief in the reality of telepathy.
