Morbid fears and compulsions : their psychology and psychoanalytic treatment . hort the picture gives about the same impression offantastic absurdity as do most of our dreams, and like a dreamit requires interpretation. This cartoon is not, however, as easy to interpret as wasthe first one. In fact, as it stands, it absolutely defies inter-pretation. We assume that indirect representation, somesort of symbolism, was used in forming it, but in order tointerpret it we must know the meaning of these symbols andsomething of the setting or of what the artist had in mindwhen he drew the picture. As
Morbid fears and compulsions : their psychology and psychoanalytic treatment . hort the picture gives about the same impression offantastic absurdity as do most of our dreams, and like a dreamit requires interpretation. This cartoon is not, however, as easy to interpret as wasthe first one. In fact, as it stands, it absolutely defies inter-pretation. We assume that indirect representation, somesort of symbolism, was used in forming it, but in order tointerpret it we must know the meaning of these symbols andsomething of the setting or of what the artist had in mindwhen he drew the picture. As we look at the picture now,we are just as ignorant of the meaning of its symbols as weare of the dream symbols of another person. This picture appeared in the New York Times in the springof 1915, with the title This is the Place, but Wheres theGirl ? In the original the symbols employed by the artistwere labelled. On the sheet of paper which lies on the side-walk in front of the man was inscribed the phrase Italy togo to war in the Spring and the tag attached to the bouquet. Courtesy of the New York Times NIGHT DREAMS 63 he carried bore the words For Miss Italy. At the time thepicture was published, Italy, in spite of numerous predictions,had not yet joined in the European war. By the aid of these hints the picture is very readily inter-preted. The meaning is something like this: Italy isbehaving like a fickle girl. No reliance can be placed uponher. The artist has used as symbols a man, a bouquet anda lamp post to express a thought about something entirelydifferent, namely the attitude of that country toward thegreat conflict. In this cartoon, as in the first one, the same method ofindirect representation is employed that is used in dreams,with one difference however. The artist has labelled hissymbols. The symbols in the dream are not labelled as theywere in the original of this picture. The dream is like thepicture as I have displayed it—that is, without the hints tointerp
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookid390020107917, bookyear1921
