(1977).

Journal of American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 5(2):233-

238
Dream Interpretation without Associations: Bismarck's Dream
Nathan Roth
To many readers it appears that in his book The Interpretation of Dreams,
Sigmund Freud (1900) tended to minimize the significance of the manifest
content of dreams. He did this in the effort to emphasize the dream work and
the latent content so as to find the desired interpretation. Later psychoanalysts
have paid detailed attention to the manifest content, treating it as a
psychologic product worthy of very careful scrutiny, and have found
important meanings in its formal features and in its subject matter (Erikson
1954; Roth 1959). There was only one area in which Freud felt that
associations to the elements of the manifest dream were not necessary, and
that was in the interpretation of symbols where the analyst could himself
supply the requisite information.
Psychoanalysts have learned to carry this procedure even further. While
knowing the essentiality of associations from the dreamer to enigmatic and
idiosyncratic dream material, probably every experienced analyst jumps
quickly to tentative interpretations on the first recitation of a dream. Indeed it
has become a frequently employed teaching procedure to examine the manifest
dream content in order to see what can be learned from it while knowing little
or nothing about the patient. Freud himself employed this technique in his
lengthy section on “Representation by Symbols in Dreams.”
It is an interesting exercise to see whether a dream, interpreted without
associational material from the dreamer, can be proved to have been correctly
understood when that material is later forthcoming. Much can be learned
about the meaning of symbols and the nature of the dream work by such
experiments. It is the intent

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 of this essay to examine a dream interpretation made without associations
from the dreamer, and to compare it with the understanding emerging through
additional information made available later. The dream is all the more
interesting in coming from a famous historical figure.
A dream of Germany's first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, recorded in his
own words, was analyzed by Hanns Sachs and later included by Freud in his
book. It is to be noted that Bismarck had the dream in the Spring of 1863, but
did not relate it to the Emperor William I until December 18, 1881. It runs as
follows.
“I dreamt (as I related the first thing next morning to my wife and
other witnesses) that I was riding on a narrow Alpine path,
precipice on the right, rocks on the left. The path grew narrower, so
that the horse refused to proceed, and it was impossible to turn
round or dismount, owing to lack of space. Then, with my whip in
my left hand, I struck the smooth rock and called on God. The whip
grew to an endless length, the rocky wall dropped like a piece of
stage scenery and opened out a broad path, with a view over hills
and forests, like a landscape in Bohemia; there were Prussian
troops with banners, and even in my dream the thought came to me
at once that I must report it to your Majesty. This dream was
fulfilled, and I woke up rejoiced and strengthened. … ”
According to Sachs, the first part of the dream deals with the impasse in
which Bismarck then found himself. He could not think of a way out of the
dilemmas brought about by his policy, he could neither surrender nor resign,
and he merely assigned himself to sleep and dream, thinking of his next
vacation in the Alps at Bad Gastein.
Sachs's view of the second portion of the dream is that it represents
Bismarck's wishes fulfilled both undisguisedly and symbolically. The obvious
gratification is his finding the broad path he was seeking in his uncertainty,
namely a victorious war with Austria. The symbolic satisfaction concerned
the performance of an infantile masturbatory act, in which the forbidden and
secretive features were dealt with in such a manner as to cause no anxiety.
Bismarck compares himself to Moses in communion with God, and achieves
both his national and personal objectives. Sachs then adds that such a dream
of victory and conquest often conceals a wish for success in an erotic
conquest, but says that is “insufficient basis for inferring that a definite trend
of thoughts and wishes of that kind ran through the dream.” Here Sachs
appears to have become hesitant through timidity, after having boldly
interpreted

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 the masturbatory fantasy; his obvious respect for Bismarck makes him perhaps
cautious of identifying with his hero and of conquering new territory with a
bold stroke. In any event, the dream report ends in a strange way; Bismarck
says, “This dream was fulfilled, and I woke up rejoiced and strengthened. …”
At this point he had not had the victorious war with Austria. What fulfillment
did he refer to that conduced to his happy awakening? According to Sachs's
interpretation, there can be only one answer; either Bismarck had masturbated
or had had a nocturnal emission; he was with his wife but he did not have
sexual intercourse, since the interpretation refers definitely only to
masturbation, and says that the evidence for an erotic conquest is not
sufficiently conclusive.
Probably no psychoanalyst will object to the interpretation of Bismarck's
perplexity about his policy, and the outcome in a victorious war with Austria.
But there will surely be some demurrals to the notions that Bismarck had a
masturbatory fantasy and an erotic conquest in mind. Particularly those
psychoanalysts who do not subscribe to Freud's view of the pervasiveness of
the sexual drive in dreams that appear innocent will challenge this part of the
interpretation. Perhaps an examination of Bismarck's life history, especially
of those details just prior to the dream, will help to resolve the uncertainty.
In his youth while at school, Bismarck was wild and undisciplined. Within
one year, while at the University of Göttingen, he fought no less than 25 duels,
and was wounded once. “He drank, he wenched. … and he ran heavily into
debt” (Palmer 1976). He is even described by one writer (Lorant 1974) as
having had convulsions, but this is very questionable.
We know some facts about his erotic life. He formed attachments to sundry
ladies, some fleeting, some more lasting. In 1837, at the age of 22, he fell in
love with the beautiful 17 year old daughter, Isabella Loraine-Smith, of an
Anglican clergyman. To be with her he deserted his post in the government
service for some months as he traveled with Isabella and her parents, and was
suspended without pay. But the florid relationship ended without the
matrimony which Bismarck had planned.
In 1844, when Bismarck was 29, his friend, Moritz von Blanck-enburg,
married Marie von Thadden. Bismarck is said to have admired Marie more
than any other woman he had met. He renounced her in loyalty to his friend.
When Marie died an early death Bismarck was devastated and wept
profusely. He met a friend of Marie's, Johanna von Puttkamer, an unattractive
woman whom he married in 1847, knowing that Marie had hoped they

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 would marry, and he named his daughter after Marie. Although he treasured
his wife and children, he did not give up forming other attachments.
About six months before the dream which Bismarck had in the Spring of
1863, he met Catherine Orlov and her husband in Biarritz. Prince Nicholas
Orlov was the Russian minister to Brussels; he had been severely wounded
fighting the Turks in the Crimean War. Bismarck became enamoured of Kathy,
and as he had done with Isabella Loraine-Smith, he neglected his official
duties to stay with the Orlovs. Photographs show that Kathy bore a marked
resemblance to the beautiful Isabella, and Bismarck remained attached to
Kathy until she died in 1875. He traveled through the south of France with the
Orlovs, and from this location Bismarck gave us a significant statement.
Walking over the Roman aqueduct at the Pont-du-Gard with Kathy, “picking
our way along a narrow ledge,” the path became dangerous, and then “I
stepped out quickly after the Princess, and grasping her with one arm, jumped
into . … a channel four or five feet deep.” This episode on the aqueduct gave
the formal setting for the dream which Bismarck later reported to the King.
At the very time that Bismarck formed his attachment to Kathy, his long,
difficult struggle for power finally reached a peak of success. The King of
Prussia appointed him minister president and foreign minister. A few weeks
later he was back in Paris where he visited Kathy and entertained her and her
husband. The problems of politics in 1862-1863 were exhausting to him, he
was sad and lonely, troubled by headaches and insomnia, and he wrote of his
problems to Kathy.
At this point in 1863 when he had his dream, Bismarck was occupied with
the issues of the twin Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, ruled by Denmark.
He wrote later that this was the diplomatic campaign of which he was most
proud, and the psychoanalyst will suspect that he was really proud of his
success in gaining Kathy's affection. The similarities of his behavior with
Kathy and Isabella Loraine-Smith suggest that he was acting out a
transference, and his activities at this point indicate that he was concocting an
oedipal triumph. He showed considerable duplicity, as though having to
outwit the prohibitive father in order to gain the lady from him. He had
yearned for war with Austria in order to diminish the influence of that empire
in Germany, so that Prussia could become supreme. Yet he managed to enlist
the military aid of Austria in a joint attack with Prussia upon the Danes. Later
he inflicted the coup de grace upon Austria in 1866, bringing to reality

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 the fantasied scene in the dream of 1863. This brought Schleswig-Holstein
under the hegemony of Prussia, lands to which he admitted Prussia had no
right. One concludes that he was, in his territorial conquests, repeating in
fantasy the taking of Kathy from her husband. He had not taken Marie von
Thadden from his friend, but he apparently dreamt of taking Kathy from her
husband, and this must be the reason for the sense of fulfillment in the dream,
since at that time he had not actually made any territorial conquests.
With his fantasy of success with Kathy, his desire for power began to run
rampant. He put most of northern Germany under Prussian domination before
the battles with Austria. He arranged for the chancellorship to be a powerful
post, in effect prime minister of the new German nation; he wanted the
position for himself, was soon appointed and held it for 28 years, resigning in
1890 at the age of 75. His successes led to his acclamation by the public, and
he wrote to Kathy, “Popularity is rather a burden - I am not used to it.” This is
just the kind of statement a man would make to his lover; she alone is enough
for him.
In 1870 Bismarck led his nation to quick military victory over France,
which brought fresh territorial acquisitions for Germany. Kathy was of
Russian stock, but had been brought up in France. Is it going too far to ask
whether this campaign too was an unconscious statement that he was taking
Kathy for himself? According to the view put forward in this paper, the
destiny of the entire nation of Germany in the 19th century was fashioned by
the oedipal ambitions of one man. This will not appear too far fetched to the
psychoanalyst, even though, of course, many other powerful forces helped to
shape this destiny.
It had been easier to express his hostility to the Emperors of Austria and
France than to his own Emperor of Prussia, whom he ironically put in the
position of feeling safe only in Bismarck's hands. Bismarck had been
disappointed by his mother at the early age of seven, when she sent him off to
Berlin for his education while he preferred his rural home. He made her rue
the day on which she made this decision since he could have been a much
better student. When he had left school he made himself into a very learned
man. With his triumph in the affections of Kathy Orlov, he also got his
revenge on the man to whom he lost Isabella, and whom he described as a
“wretched colonel aged fifty with four horses and fifteen thousand
reichsthaler in revenues” (Richter 1965).
That the dream remained in Bismarck's memory so long, so that

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 he could report it to the Emperor 18 years later, tells us how important the
fantasy was to him. It can now be determined why he decided to tell it at that
time. It was an effort to reassure the Emperor. William I had never felt safe or
comfortable on his throne, and early in his reign had wished to abdicate. He
feared that, like Charles I of England, he would lose his head to the mob. In
1878 he had been seriously wounded in an assassination attempt and had
given surprise by recovering. He confided a dream to Bismarck, in which
there was an angry demonstration in the Reichstag and the deputies resolved
that never again should the monarch's name be mentioned in the house. The
letter of William I to Bismarck and the latter's reply bear the same date,
December 18, 1881 (Palmer 1976) when Bismarck recounted his dream. So
he was reassuring the Emperor that he was in the safe and successful hands of
his chancellor. How well was the dream wish disguised! Just as he called on
God in the dream, so could he reveal his concealed wishes to the Emperor.
His dreams of rocks and palm trees in southern climates, where he spent such
happy times with Isabella and Kathy, were more transparent.
It may be concluded that the effort to interpret Bismarck's dream without
associations was successful. The meaning of the symbols is clear. The
material coming from biographical facts of Bismarck's life supports the
interpretation. It could have been carried further to state with certainty that it
did indeed contain the fulfillment of an erotic conquest. The experienced
psychoanalyst will often feel confident of the meaning of a dream even
without having associations, although the latter are necessary for highly
individualistic dream features.
References
Erikson, E. H. (1954), The dream specimen of psychoanalysis, J. Amer.
Psychoanal. Assn., 2, 5-56. [→]
Freud, S. (1900), The Interpretation of Dreams, The Standard Edition, Vol.
V, The Hogarth Press, London, 1953, 378-381. [→]
Lorant, S. (1974), Sieg Heil! An Illustrated History of Germany from
Bismarck to Hitler, Norton, New York, 10.
Palmer, A. (1976), Bismarck, Scribner, New York, 8, 220, 294.
Richter, W. (1965), Bismarck, Translated by B. Battershaw. Putnam, New
York, 28.
Roth, N. (1959), Sublimation and manifest dream content, Am. J. Psychother.,
13, 842-850. [→]

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 Article Citation [Who Cited This?]
Roth, N. (1977). Dream Interpretation without Associations. J. Am. Acad.
Psychoanal. Dyn. Psychiatr., 5(2):233-238

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