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Freud's opinion of Irish people.

  • 01-04-2014 12:02AM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,501 ✭✭✭


    I've often seen this quote and wondered about it :

    "This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever." Sigmund Freud, speaking about the Irish.

    Any thoughts..?


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,806 ✭✭✭bluefinger


    it's from the departed and i think it's a fiction. doesn't ring true. why or how psychoanalysis wouldn't work for one specific European nation is beyond me.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,025 ✭✭✭MaxWig


    He was referring to Russians if I'm not mistaken.

    The Departed was just using poetic license.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,501 ✭✭✭FullblownRose


    I don't know why he might have had difficulty in analysing people of a particular nationality. Maybe because they grew up in a different culture they are less expressive or more guarded, more analytical of freuds own motives and possibly suspicious of him or disdainful of the questions he asked, more inscrutable somehow. Maybe his style of questioning them wasn't ideal for them and there was no rapport and they did not communicate very well (not in terms of language fluency or anything, but in terms of mutual understanding? ) Maybe not all professionals and patients are compatible and can work well together?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,735 ✭✭✭dar100


    Could be the hang ups Irish people had at the time, and the view of sex and sexuality influenced by the Church


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,025 ✭✭✭MaxWig


    From the Freud Museum's FAQ section. (no idea how reliable a source that is)

    Did Freud say of the Irish "This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever."?

    This remark is discussed in the Oscar-winning movie 'The Departed'. However, there is no evidence Freud ever said it.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,887 ✭✭✭JuliusCaesar


    The problem with quotes on the internet...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,735 ✭✭✭dar100


    The problem with quotes on the internet...

    Haha very good


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,501 ✭✭✭FullblownRose


    dar100 wrote: »
    Could be the hang ups Irish people had at the time, and the view of sex and sexuality influenced by the Church

    Maybe that was it..or maybe he was puzzled because it was a different mentality to the mammy-fancying one he espoused himself :P

    Maybe assertive Irish women confused him.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 963 ✭✭✭Labarbapostiza


    It's an old joke, that takes various forms: Freud tried to analyse the Irish man, but the Irish man wouldn't shut up talking about himself.


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