Definitions HQ

Ambition (n.) protects ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠its hopes by slander: the dream makes one rival a simpleton and the other a criminal, so that their fate need not be mine.

Ambition (n.) one ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠disowns may simply have been transferred long ago to quite other objects.

Ambition (n.) can ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠be a lifelong reply to one sentence from a father — 'The boy will come to nothing' — answered in dream after dream with a list of achievements: 'You see, I have come to something.'

Ambition (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠punished in kind: he who could not wait for another man's removal was himself removed.

Ambition (n.) made ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the young doctor introduce himself to the great Virchow as “Dr. Virchow” — feeling himself too small beside the name, or hoping one day to be as great.

Ambition (n.) can ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠disguise itself as its opposite: the patient's pathological dread of reading newspapers was a reaction against his longing to read of his own fame in them.

Ambition (n.) sent ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the patient searching every catalogue for a book on agoraphobia he'd seen in a window — a book that existed only as his own unconscious intention to write it.

Ambition (n.) climbed ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a floor too high: lost in a daydream of rising ever higher, Freud overshot the door he'd climbed to twice a day for six years.

Ambition (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠regularly bound up, in analytic experience, with fire and urethral erotism.

Ambition (n.) has ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠an ancient tie to urination, as the legend knew that set Alexander's birth on the night Herostratus burned the temple at Ephesus for fame.

Ambition (n.) showed ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠itself early in legend: the three-year-old Moses, tossed playfully in Pharaoh's arms, snatched the crown from his head and put it on his own.