relief from all conflict, strife
and effort. Death may, therefore, well express a shrinking from
adaptation and reality, and as such may symbolize one of the most
deep-seated yearnings of the human soul. But from time immemorial man
has associated with this yearning another one, one which, without the
adaptation to reality being made, yet includes a certain attempt at
objectivation, the desire for rebirth. We need not enter further into
possible symbols for death _per se_, but it is quite necessary to speak
briefly of the symbolic forms in which the striving for rebirth has ever
found expression. The reader will find a large material collected in
various writings on mythology, for the psychological interpretation of
which reference may be made to Jung's "Wandlungen und Symbole der
Libido" and Rank's "Mythos von der Geburt des Helden." From them it
appears how old are the symbols for rebirth, and how they deal chiefly
with water and earth, and the idea of being surrounded by and enclosed
in a small space. Thus we find a sinking into the water of the sea,
enclosure in something which swims on or in the water, such as a casket,
or a basket, or a fish, or a boat; again, we find descent into the
earth. The striving for rebirth might be assumed to have adopted these
expressions or symbols on account of the concrete way in which the human
mind knows birth to take place. The tendency for concrete expression of
abstract notions causes the desire for another existence to appear,
first as a rebirth fantasy and then as a return to the mother's body.
One thinks of Job's cry, "Naked came I from my mother's womb and naked
shall I return thither," as an example of the literal comparison of
death with birth. We need only refer to the myths of Moses and the older
one of Osiris, and the many myths of the birth of the hero, to call to
the mind of the reader the examples which mythology furnishes. There is
probably not one of the ideas expressed by these patients which cannot
be duplicated in myths. We have, therefore, a right to speak of these
ideas as "primitive," and to see in them, not only deep-seated strivings
of the human soul, but to recognize in them an essential inner
relationship. It is especially this last fact to which at this point we
wish to call attention: that without any obvious connection the
fantasies of our forefathers recur in the delusions of our stupor cases.
We presume that in each case they represent a fulfillment o