Rain and the urge to urinate: clinical observations concerning external events, surmounted impulses and repression

During a time of heavy rainfall a number of patients produced dreams, associations, new symptoms and memories, involving sexual impulses expressed through the urge to urinate. Sensory stimulation associated with the rains activated trains of thought that approached previously unconscious contents. The urge to urinate cannot be repressed, but can be surmounted. Sexual fantasies based upon the act of urination may escape being tested against reality by being regarded as surmounted rather than impossible. The connexion with a surmounted, non-sexual impulse permits the sexual one to survive in repressed form, and at the same time creates a point of contact with conscious mental life, leaving open the possibility of elicitation by external stimuli.