Note 20 — III
James S. (James Samuel) Van Teslaar translation
Once I treated a man who had separated from his wife, wanted to marry another woman with whom he had fallen in love and to divorce his wife. In the course of our interviews during that time this man said repeatedly: “I would not introduce you to my first wife; you would fall in love with her if I did; no man can help that.” At once I recognized that the man’s neurotic disorder reached back to a suppressed love for his wife. In his mind there rumbled continually sounds which he could not reproduce. He recalled scraps of melodies which he could not place at all. But once I was able to get at one such melody. It was a song of which he did not know the words. When the matter was ferreted out it was found that the words bore distinctly a reference to his first wife. The vague melodies permitted his mind to dwell on her and at the same time to cover from his consciousness the fact that he could not keep her out of his mind. Here is a characteristic passage from Eichendorff’s poem:
Ich kam von Walde hernieder, Da stand noch das alte Haus; Mein Liebchen schaute wieder Wie einst zum Fenster hinaus— Sie hat einen andern genommen— Ich war draussen in Schlacht und Krieg— Nun ist alles anders gekommen:— Ich wollt es war wieder Krieg....
These verses represent a summary of his great conflict.