will, she told me this little story: A little boy cousin of hers, three
years her junior, had begun school two years or so later than she, and yet,
in spite of this handicap, this little relative had outstripped her in
school, he being now in a higher grade than she herself was. She would not
be so much concerned or worried about this not-to-be-proud-of performance,
had not the boy's mother that week visited her home and there, in the
presence of other people, talked considerably about her boy's progress in
school, his rapid advance as compared with that of our little dreamer, her
relative stupidity and backwardness. And so this boy's mother had continued
for some time in the same strain. This caused our little girl to feel much
embarrassed--in fact, ashamed and mortified. She had felt that way for
several days past, it had made her cry, had made her feel miserable and
unhappy; so much so that she had wished she were dead. I shall not continue
this analysis further. But it is plainly seen that here too, by a single
dream, we have come upon life-experiences, viewpoints and mental material
which affords us efficient and sufficient weapons to boldly attack the
fortress of her full life history, her mental qualities, her trends, her
psychic depth, her mental makeup in its entirety, in its every dimension.

It is interesting to note that on the morning following the experience which
I had with this child, she came to see me a second time, and, on my
examining her throat, it presented the typical picture of bilateral
tonsillitis, the final result of the initial sticking sensation in her
throat, which she had experienced the day before. After taking a culture
from her throat as a matter of routine to exclude a possible diphtheria, the
patient, greatly disturbed because of her newly-discovered trouble, burst
forth into bitter tears, and, still sobbing, rushed abruptly from the room.

A week later, when I saw her again, she had regained her emotional
equilibrium and we reviewed her dream and its analysis without any special