CHAPTER IV
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RUMOUR[1]
About a year ago the school authorities in N. asked me to give a professional opinion as to the mental condition of Marie X., a thirteen year old schoolgirl. Marie had been expelled from school because she had been instrumental in originating an ugly rumour, spreading gossip about her class-teacher. The punishment hit the child, and especially her parents, very hard, so that the school authorities were inclined to readmit her if protected by a medical opinion. The facts were as follows:—
The teacher had heard indirectly that the girls were attributing some equivocal sexual story to him. On investigation it was found that Marie X. had one day related a dream to three girl-friends which ran somewhat as follows:—
“The class was going to the swimming baths. I had to go to the boys’ because there was no more room. Then we swam a long way out in the lake (asked who did so: ‘Lina P., the teacher, and myself’). A steamer came along. The teacher asked us if we wished to get into it. We came to K. A wedding was just going on there (asked whose: ‘a friend of the teacher’s’). We were also to take part in it. Then we went for a journey (who? ‘I, Lina P., and the teacher’). It was like a honeymoon journey. We came to Andermatt, and there was no more room in the hotel, so we were obliged to pass the night in a barn. The woman got a child there, and the teacher became the godfather.”
When I examined the child she told this dream. The teacher had likewise related the dream in writing. In this
- ↑ “Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse,” 1911, vol. I., p. 81.
