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PARTISAN REVIEW
stood by the Ego as is, before it is coupled with a synonym with a
variant meaning. The hypothesis of a Rift or Tear in the Ego serves
to explain the occurence of a word that is understood without being
disguised. This word is coupled with another word that is its
synonym with a variant meaning. The crypt containing a given
word is located in one part of the Ego, while its correlated word is in
another one. Moreover, a partition within the Unconscious is as–
sumed to correspond to a Rift in the Ego. Thus the word
tieret,
for in–
stance, becomes fetishized and can cross the partition of the Un–
conscious only if it has been turned into its variant meaning as a
visual image. While the Wolf Man's other words speak in rhymes
and reproduce his traumatic dialogue,
tieret
is a silent word "recon–
structed from a visual image ... that is, a masturbatory or
sublimated fantasy."
Now, the stages of the WolfMan's trauma can be understood:
the incestuous relationship of his father to his older sister led to his
'seduction' by his sister, and discussing these matters with his
English governess led to the quarrel between the governess and his
mother. Thereby, the scandal about his father turned pleasure into
sin , his father into a criminal, and the little boy became a court of
law raised above the father . His nightmare about the wolves sitting
on branches of a tree is reinterpreted in the context of the quarrel
that he witnessed.
The keystone of Abraham and Torok's interpretation is "the
discovery .. . that English had been the Wolf Man's childhood
language. Freud had taken seventeen years to realize this and to
draw his decisive yet succinct conclusions .. .. [and] English as the
cryptic language . . . allowed us to identify the active and hidden
words." But the Wolf Man's autobiographical remarks in Gardiner's
and Obholzer's books contradict this 'discovery' .
The reference to Freud is to a case in
Fetishism,
concerning a
patient, who according to Freud was brought up 'in an English
nursery but had later come to Germany, where he forgot his mother–
tongue completely." Although the WolfMan is not mentioned in this
case , Abraham and Torok assume that this refers to him for this pa–
tient , just like the Wolf Man, complained about a "shine on the
nose. " They may be right in assuming that Freud did not have two
patients with the same complaint, but this does not imply that Freud
believed that the WolfMan was brought up in an English nursery or
that he was right in adopting this belief.
After quoting the famous nightmare with the wolves , Abraham
