I typically make a point not to post dreams with people I know; still, in some ways, all the people I know who appear in my dreams are metaphors for psychological and emotional components inside me, especially parents.<\/p>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\nUp till now everybody has been convinced that the idea\u00a0“my father,” “my mother,” etc.,\u00a0is nothing but a faithful\u00a0reflection of the real parent, corresponding in every detail to the\u00a0original, so that when someone says “my father” he means no\u00a0more and no less than what his father is in reality. This is actually what he supposes he does mean, but a supposition of identity by no means brings that identity about. This is where the\u00a0fallacy of the enkekalymmenos (‘the veiled one’) comes in. If\u00a0one includes in the psychological equation X’s picture of his\u00a0father, which he takes for the real father, the equation will not\u00a0work out, because the unknown quantity he has introduced does\u00a0not tally with reality. X has overlooked the fact that his idea of\u00a0a person consists, in the first place, of the possibly very incomplete picture he has received of the real person and, in the second place, of the subjective modifications he has imposed upon\u00a0this picture. X’s idea of his father is a complex quantity for\u00a0which the real father is only in part responsible, an indefinitely\u00a0large share falling to the son. So true is this that every time he\u00a0criticizes or praises his father he is unconsciously hitting back\u00a0at himself, thereby bringing about those psychic consequences\u00a0that overtake people who habitually disparage or overpraise\u00a0themselves. If, however, X carefully compares his reactions with\u00a0reality, he stands a chance of noticing that he has miscalculated\u00a0somewhere by not realizing long ago from his father’s behaviour\u00a0that the picture he has of him is a false one. But as a rule X is\u00a0convinced that he is right, and if anybody is wrong it must be\u00a0the other fellow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n