Psychoanalysis, by David Bingham

A psychoanalysis session conducted by Dr Oscar Schneider with the apparition of Frau Sabine

Bachmann, his deceased lover, at his consulting rooms in Vienna, 1909

He points to a painting 

of an Alpine scene 

and asks his patient what she sees.

‘I see rue Chabanais, that street of debauchery,

where high class whores pander to the wants

of privileged and powerful men.’

The good doctor lifts the cover from a porcelain plate,

decorated with red roses, and reveals a selection

of expensive sweets. ‘Please take one and describe its taste.’

She chooses a chocolate-coated truffle

and is immediately overcome with revulsion

as she recalls the acridness of bitter almonds.

He sets up his gramophone and plays

the famous soprano Jane Merey singing la Valse Rose.

‘What do you hear?’ he asks.

‘The prolonged and agonising cries of a fallen woman

reaching the end of her life

and then the whisper of her last breath.’

He picks a gardenia

from a bouquet of flowers and passes it to her.

‘Such a pleasing fragrance I think you’ll agree’

She puts it to her nose.

‘To me, it is like a rotting corpse left

in an unvisited room for many weeks.’

He reaches out to touch her.

‘Tell me how this feels?’ he says.

She grasps his hand; and, in shock,

he whimpers as drop by drop she drains the moisture

from his body, until all that remains is a skeleton

of dried bones covered in withered skin.

She looks down at what is left of him.

‘It feels good,’ she says,

‘it feels very, very good.’

© David Bingham, 2021