Fantasies and their symptomatic manifestations

In "Dora", Freud highlights one of Dora's symptoms: a chronic nervous cough. Freud explains that Dora harbored repressed love for her father and was enraged at the thought of him having an affair with Frau K. However, in one of their discussions, Dora states that Frau K. loved her father because he was a 'man of means'. Freud, applying his "no means yes" theory, concluded that Dora meant her father was a 'man without means' meaning her father was impotent. Dora confirms this conclusion and shows that she knew there was more than one way of providing sexual gratification. From this, Freud states that the reason for her chronic cough was because "she pictured to herself a scene of sexual gratification per os between the two people whose love-affair occupied her mind so incessantly" (196). The cough was stimulated by the irritation of body cavities that would be engaged in such a sexual fantasy involving her father and Frau K.

   

 This marks one of Freud's more important theories: that repressed fantasies often result in symptomatic manifestations. I find that this theory is expressed in many forms of literature but mainly in The Talented Mr.Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. In this novel, Tom Ripley is sent to Italy to retrieve a rich businessman's rebellious son, Dickie Greenleaf. When Tom meets Dickie, he is immediately enamored with him; however, he constantly represses his homoerotic tendencies. Convincing himself that he is not homosexual, through Freud's theory of reactive reinforcement (excessively reinforcing a contradictory thought to repress the actual thought), Tom succeeds in repressing his homosexuality and his sexual fantasies towards Dickie. However, this repression paired with Marge- Dickie's love interest who serves as a constant reminder of his heterosexuality- causes Tom to start exhibiting strange behaviors. Namely, Tom becomes dominant and controlling to the point of acting like Dickie. In one specific scene, he dresses up as Dickie and acts out strangling Marge in a mirror: getting rid of the one obstacle between him and Dickie. These behaviors are a direct result of Tom repressing his homosexuality.

This picture is from the film which is completely different from the novel. Jude Law is Dickie and Gwyneth Paltrow is Marge

     In a deeper analysis, it seems as though the characters in this novel are different representations of the people involved in Dora's neurosis. Dickie is the equivalent of Dora's father in that he is the constant object of affection and prefers Marge to Tom, Tom is the equivalent of Dora in that he suffers neurosis because of his repression of the love he feels for Dickie, and Marge is the equivalent of Frau K. because she feigns affection towards Tom for the sake of Dickie and also represents one of the obstacles between Tom and Dickie.