I’m writing a paper about the importance of the hands motif in Dickens’s Great Expectations , and I was wondering if anyone had any links to/knowledge of websites/books that discuss the psychoanalytic interpretations of hand imagery. I’ve Googled and Dogpiled and rummaged through some psychoanalysis books, but can’t seem to find anything cite-worthy.
I’ve heard from various sources (teachers, etc.) that in dreams, hands can mean social interaction, but I can’t prove this with any decent evidence (other than sketchy “Interpret your Dreams!” websites).
I’d appreciate it if anyone could steer me in the right direction! (interpretations of hands in connection to masturbation are not applicable)
Thanks!
On this page there is a quote from Anzieu* that links the mentnion of “hands” in Freud’s “table d’hôte” dream closely with social/sexual interaction.
Might be a nice point to slip in - Freud clearly views the placing of hands of knees …
Company at table or table d’hôte … spinach was being eaten … Frau E.L. was sitting beside me; she was turning her whole attention to me and laid her hand on my knee in an intimate manner. I removed her hand unresponsively. She then said: “But you’ve always had such beautiful eyes.” … I then had an indistinct picture of two eyes, as though it were a drawing or like the outline of a pair of spectacles …" (Freud, 1901, pp. 636-637)
… as a sexual act (note that Freud’s removal of the hand signifies rejection of the sexual advance).
Later he speaks about …
I was very much annoyed because I thought my wife was not sufficiently reserved towards some people sitting near us whose acquaintance I had no desire at all to make. I asked her to concern herself more with me than with these strangers. This was again as though I were getting the worst of the bargain at table d’hôte.
To proceed, I now saw that the events in the dream were a reproduction of a small episode of a precisely similar kind which occurred between my wife and me at the time at which I was secretly courting her. The caress which she gave me under the table-cloth was her reply to a passionate love-letter. In the dream, however, my wife was replaced by a comparative stranger – E.L.
… which again links “touch” with sexual contact (this time much more explicitly).
*Anzieu, D. (1986). Freud’s self-analysis (P. Graham, Trans.). New York: International Universities Press. (Original work published 1975)
Thanks for the info! It should prove helpful!