PLEASURE IN SLEEP AND DISTURBED CAPACITY FOR SLEEP 35
neurosis broke out. Its course was determined by the dispositional strength of the oral libido. It took possession of this component instinct with unusual force, and produced almost the entire range of those pathological phantasies which draw nourishment from this impulse. I should like, incidentally, to call attention to two re- sults, because they seem to me characteristic products of the oral phase, and in their genera! nature to leave traces on every human character. The regression of the libido to the oral or cannibalistic stage changes not only its form, but also its content, until it is unrecognisable. It is then difficult to recognise in the symptom the original libidinal excitation as such. In the present case I had to regard an excessive envy and certain murderous phantasies as the strongest psychical emanations by means of which the libido had betaken itselfto lower levels and had formed its relation with the world ; these phantasies and envy were quite foreign to her conscious personality and contrasted remarkably with the rest of her character. Envy in particular seems to me to be always a narcissistic side-stream arising cut of the oral instinct, and is an important clue towards establishing a character based on this com- ponent instinct. Wherever it is possible to observe envy at an early stage, m children, for instance, we find that it is directed only against people to whom there is simultaneously a hbidinal attachment.
Owing to the progress of the Uhiess the effective oral libido, which up to this time had been latent, obtained control and took possession of her whole personality which had to subject itself to it entirely. At the same time the patient adopted a remarkable behaviour during sleep, and this supplemented the neurosis in an unexpected direction. Her need for sleep had always been great, and her vivid description of it gave rise from the first to the supposition that it concerned an act from which she derived a considerable amount of pleasure. That a sleeper should experience pleasure of this kind is plausible to anyone. Only analysis finds sufficient grounds in this very fact for seeing a problem here. The patient's pleasure in sleep had now in neurosis adopted a sympto- matic form. Some details are easily understandable, such as a tendency to he on her stomach completely covered up, in order to procure comfort and warmth as a preliminary condition for sleep. When sleep came the tendency to increase this condition did not cease. She men- tioned three so-called 'sleep actions' which she carried out from i'
