The Doppelganger

On a mild November morning, in Vienna, a man stood in front of Berggasse 19 and, having checked that he had the right address, rang the doorbell.

 

After a brief interval, the door was opened by a young attractive girl.

 

“Guten Morgen, Fräulein, I have an appointment with Dr. Freud“, he said handing his visiting card.

 

“He is expecting you“, she replied after reading the name on the card, “follow me“.

 

They went up a staircase and reached an anteroom, next to  Freud's study, furnished with several comfortable chairs. 

 

“Your visitor is here, Papa“, she announced as he entered the waiting room.

 

The caller raised from the armchair, shook hands and started to say:

 

“My name is ...“ when he was interrupted.

 

“I know who you are, Sir. Your friend John Utterson has apprised me of the awkward situation in which you find yourself”.

 

“Thank you, Doctor, it was kind of you to agree to see me“. 

 

Let's go into the consulting room to discuss the problem“.

 

“The only problem that I see is that I have a doppelganger by the name of Edward Hyde who is impersonating me, committing evil acts and giving me a bad reputation whereas the general assumption of friends and family is that I have, unknowingly, acquired a dissociative identity disorder that affects my behaviour negatively which needs to be analysed and that's where you come in“.

 

“Very well. Lie on the couch and relax“.

 

He sat on a small Chesterfield chair, next to Dr. Jekyll with a notebook and a fountain pen.

 

Freud believed that by releasing repressed memories one could trace the origin of a particular problem.

 

“We shall probe your mind through your thoughts and dreams, Henry, to ascertain the origins of your anxieties. A lot of difficulties are linked to libido or hinge on sex. The Oedipus complex is a case in point. What about you, Henry, does your mother or the female form excite you?”

 

“No. Doctor, I am more at ease with male company.”

 

The psychoanalyst could relate to that. After dinner, there was nothing more satisfying than pass the port, once the ladies had left the room, and enjoy a good cigar in the company of male friends.

 

Back to the matter at hand, he asked his patient if he would undergo past life regression, through hypnotism. A proposition accepted by Dr. Jekyll as being a useful forensic tool.

 

So began a laborious, elaborate examination, that eventually resulted in an extraordinary discovery.

 

The conundrum faced by Sigmund Freud was serious: how to break the news that had emerged from the journey into the subject's past?

 

He took the bull by the horns and blurted out the truth to Henry Jekyll who was eagerly waiting for the verdict.

 

“Prepare yourself for a shock, my dear fellow. It transires that you are suffering from a psychosomatic condition that started in your early infancy, exacerbated by the subconscious memory of what happened after your birth”.

 

“You are”, he continued, “the survivor of the conjoined twins, Henry and Edward. Due to the high probability that you both would perish it was decided you should be separated. Sadly Edward died. But that wasn't the end: since you were Siamese twins, the link between your brains was not severed and Edwatd's spirit could tap into your thoughts and monitor your activity all the time. He is your doppelganger. He can sense when your subconscious recalls the trauma of your separation and transmogrifies into a human form.”.

 

“I can see that Doctor, but why is he acting so malevolently towards me?”

 

“Because he believes that it was unfair to have been chosen as the sacrificial lamb. He resents that you are alive and he will haunt you until you too are dead”.

 

This explanation was like a bolt from the blue for the hapless victim. He collapsed on the couch in a catatonic state.

 

Freud reacted quickly and asked his daughter to instruct the servants to prepare a bed in the Blue Room for his guest's recovery.

 

The last few hours had been hectic and the analyst was unusually unsettled. To calm himself he he drank a glass of water laced with dissolved cocaine, a concoction that he recommended to his friends for its therapeutic benefits.

 

The butler had put the latest copy of The Times,  neatly ironed, on his desk and he glanced at the headlines. One item caught his attention: SCIENTIST FOUND DEAD IN LONDON LABORATORY.

The relevant article named the deceased as Dr Henry Jekyll who was thought to have died of an opium overdose.

 

“What the devil is happening?”, exclaimed Sigmund Freud flabbergasted and rushed to the Blue Room with Anna on her father's tail.

 

The room was empty and the bed appeared not to have been slept in.

 

“The doppelganger has fooled us all”, he said philosophically.

 

 

 

© Luigi Pagano 2024