[Kekulé's dream. Additional observations on the "benzol ring"].
20 years ago, Alexander Mitscherlich published in this journal a brief psychological study of the famous dream the chemist Friedrich August Kekulé had immediately before putting forward his representation of the benzene molecule in the "Kekulé formula". Mitscherlich (among whose forebears a number of prominent chemists figured) interpreted the dream as an expression of a frustrated and repressed sexual desire. The present author, by contrast, favours an interpretation which shifts the focus away from the suggestive power of the dream image-a snake biting its own tail-and sees Kekulé's dream production as a reflection of the psychic effort it cost him to ward off latent feelings of guilt associated with the early death of his wife and to alleviate scruples of conscience about his own achievement.
Le Soldat
J
J
D001554:Benzene / Q000266:history*; D004325:Dreams; D005197:Famous Persons; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D013557:Switzerland
D001554:Benzene