sleeping children. I have sometimes suggested to sleeping patients
that on waking they will remember and tell me the cause of their
symptoms. The following example shows not only the conservation of
impressions gained in sleep, but also the sway of forgotten ideas of
childhood, still strong in mature years. This young woman, a trained
nurse, with many marked symptoms of hysteria, had been asked casually
to bring a book from the Public Library. She cried out in
consternation, "Oh, no, I am afraid!" After a good deal of urging she
finally brought the book, although at the cost of considerable effort.
Later, while she was taking a nap, I said to her, "You will not
remember that I have talked to you. You will stay asleep while I am
talking and while you are asleep there will come to your mind the
reasons why you are afraid to go to the Public Library. When you
waken, you will tell me all about it." Upon awakening, she said: "Oh,
do you know, I can tell you why I have always been afraid to go to the
Public Library. While I was in Parochial School, Father ---- used to
come in and tell us children to use the books out of the school
library and never to go to the Public Library." I questioned her
concerning her idea of the reason for such an injunction and what she
thought was in the books which she was told not to read. She
hesitatingly stated that it was her idea, even in childhood, that the
books dealt with topics concerning the tabooed subject of the birth of
children and kindred matters.

=Smoldering Volcanoes.= Let us now consider those emotional
experiences which seem far too compelling to be forgotten, but which
may live within us for years without giving any evidence of their
existence. Memories like these are apt to be anything but a dead past.

Many of my own patients have uncovered emotional memories through