psychoanalysis...

{cartoon source}

I'm currently writing a paper for a class I've been taking on the history of psychoanalysis. Most of our time in class has been spend considering Freud's thought and legacy but my paper concerns a few of his followers - Reich and Jung in particular.

I've read so much about these two thinkers in the last couple of weeks I'm having a hard time keeping it all straight. But there is one especially humorous anecdote that is impossible to forget.

Jung was really interested in schizophrenics because he felt they provided special insight into the workings of the unconscious. Accordingly, he worked with a lot of schizophrenic patients - talking with them, etc... The patients would often share with Jung their hallucinations and he would jot them down hoping to discover cosmic unity down the road. One such hallucination was especially important for his concept of the collective unconscious. Jung explains, "I once came across the following hallucination in a schizophrenic patient: he told me he could see an erect phallus on the sun. When he moved his head from side to side, he said, the sun's phallus moved with it, and that was where the wind came from" (Symbols of Transformation, p. 101).

This is Allegra.

See that cute bundle of fur on the left, laying next to Mac?
The one that doesn't look like a chicken.

Her name is Allegra. She is neurotic.

She has taught the philosopher and I what it must be like to be a parent.
When your kid is swinging from the chandelier,
throwing spaghetti against the wall,
keying your car, or perhaps something worse...

When you are just about ready to stuff 'em into a crate,
drive far into the country, and just let them loose
they do something sooo cute
you forget why you were ever upset!
for the record: I would never really stuff my kid into a crate... I don't think! ;)
{Please don't report me to CPS }

What is it, you ask, that this adorably innocent-looking cat
is doing to drive us mad?
Screeching, screaming, clawing the couch, racing in circles...
Over and over and over again.


And did I mention she's clawed a hole
into every large plush piece of furniture we own
and built herself a little cave?
Our box spring, our sofa, our white leather chair...
Even duct tape can't keep her out!
{At least the holes are on the bottom so no one really knows!!}

The last thing I heard the philosopher say before I started this post
(or rather, the last threat I heard him make)
was that Allegra was about to loose her voice box -
and not of her own volition.

But then, I know he'd never do it. Because she's just so darn cute when she sleeps!

By the way, if you would like to learn more about kitty neurosis,
living with a neurotic cat, or just want to read something
HI-LAR-I-OUS, check out this book by Stephen Baker.
{His book on neurotic dogs is pretty funny too!}