Just as a new century was about to dawn, psychoanalyst SIGMUND FREUD published The Interpretation of Dreams, which introduces Freud’s theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation, and also first discusses what would later become the theory of the Oedipus complex.
Freud was interested in the idea of the pun and often repeated the tale of a poet friend who had sat next to Baron Rothschild at a dinner and told Freud that the banker had “treated me quite famillionairely”, an amusing phrase that softened the blow of being condescended to, according to Freud.
He later said that a pun was “a victorious assertion of the ego’s invulnerability”.
• How did the psychoanalyst injure himself on a skiiing holiday? He had a Freudian slip
• A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but you mean your mother
• Two egotists meet. It’s an I for and I
• If you get a fruit basket from your psychiatrist it will probably be shrink-wrapped
• What fast food do psychiatrists like? Kentucky Freud Chicken
• A patient ran into his analyst’s office screaming “I’m a teepee! I’m a wigwam!” and was told: “Relax, you’re two tents”
• Talking of psychology, does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
(From The Telegraph 23 Sept 2015 on the Internet)
Seems a quaint way to start the new year. Have a fun time – no puns intended
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 