The Emotional Settings of some Attacks of Urticaria*

Abstract

A young woman with intense longings for love was unable to satisfy these desires by a normal sexual relationship with a man because of her fears and inhibitions. She developed urticaria at times when her longings were especially stimulated and frustrated. Twelve attacks were observed during analysis and their emotional settings are described. Eight of them occurred in connection with dreams. These dreams invariably ended on the verge of frustration in an “almost but not quite” situation. Other types of dreams out of a total of 94 were never followed by urticaria and vice versa, with the exception of a repetitive dream of reaching for an object or person who slipped from the patient's grasp. This dream was followed by weeping, when not by urticaria. The urticaria appeared when weeping was repressed and often terminated when the patient wept. Some of the observations are somewhat suggestive concerning the choice of sites for the urticaria. The findings were confirmed by a second analyzed case and by a few observations on five cases seen in interview. In connection with other observations, particularly on asthma, they led to the supposition of a possible relationship between certain states of allergic sensitivity and states of intense frustrated longing.