the father; castration of father; taking his place;
liberation of the power of procreation; improvement. In its bearing on the
incest wish, castration is indeed the best translation of the
"anatomizing" of the lion. The dragon fighter has to release a woman. The
idea that the mother is in need of being released, and that it is a good
deed to free her from her oppressor, father, is according to the insight
of psychoanalysis a typical element of those unconscious phantasies of
mankind, which are stamped deeply with the greatest significance in the
imaginative "family romance" of neurotics. To the typical dragon fight
belongs, however (according to Stucken's correct formulation), the motive
of denial. As a matter of fact the hero of our parable is denied the prize
set before him--the admission into the college--for several of the elders
insist on the condition that the wanderer must resuscitate the lion (Sec.
7). In myths where the dragon has to fight with a number of persons this
difference generally occurs: that he produces dissension among his
opponents. (Jason throws a stone among the men of the dragon's teeth, they
fight about the stone and lay each other low.) Dissension occurs also
among the old men. They turned (Sec. 7) "fiercely on each other" if only
with words.

The wanderer removes, as it were, an obstacle by the fight, tears down a
wall or a restraint. This symbol occurs frequently in dreams; flying or
jumping over walls has a similar meaning. The wanderer was carried as if
in flight to the top of the wall. Then first returns the hesitation. The
symbolism of the two paths, right and left, has already been mentioned.
The man that precedes the wanderer (Sec. 7 and 8) may be quite properly
taken as the father image; once, at any rate, because the wanderer finds
himself on the journey to the mother (that is indeed the trend of the
dream) and on this path the father is naturally the predecessor. The
father is, however, the instructor, too, held up as an example and as a
model for choosing the right path. The father follows the right path to
the mother also; he is the lawful husband. The son can reach her only on
the left path. This he takes, still for the purpose of making things
better. Some one follows the wanderer on the other side (Sec. 8), whether
man or woman is not known. The father image in front of the wanderer is
his future for he will occupy his father's place. The Being behind him is
surely the past, th