Injections to Irma and interpretive delirium in psychoanalysis

‘In even the best-interpreted dreams, we must often leave a place in the dark, because we notice that a knot of dream-thoughts rises up there which cannot be disentangled, but which has also not contributed anything to the dream-content. This, then, is the navel of the dream, the place where it is seated in the unrecognised. The dream-thoughts which we encounter during the interpretation must generally remain without a conclusion and branch out in all directions into the reticular tangle of our thought-world. From a denser spot in this meshwork, the dream-wish then rises up like a mushroom from its mycelium.’ (Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams)