Freud was Wrong
After I awakened this morning from a refreshing sleep, I started to tell Nerissa about a colorful and confusing dream I had.
Part of the dream was about receiving a pair of huge, odd-looking eyeglasses in the mail.
"You dreamed that because we watched the show about Phyllis Diller last night," she interrupted.
"Huh?"
"Phyllis Diller has a collection of wild eyeglasses, hats and clothes that we saw in that documentary we watched last night, Goodnight, We Love You - The Life and Legend of Phyllis Diller. Your mind simply ran with one of the images."
"Don't go Freudian on me now," I warned.
I had read enough about Freud to know he was a well-intended but mis-guided soul. Thinking everything is a symbol (very Jungian) or has meaning (very Freudian) can be misleading. As Freud himself once noted, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
"Freud was wrong," I said.
I went on to explain that Freud would have died penniless and unknown if it weren't for his nephew.
"Who was his nephew?"
"The greatest manipulator of the masses of all time," I said. "He created modern-day public relations. I wrote about him in my Barnum book."
"And he was --?"
"Edward L. Bernays."
That meant nothing to her, so the conversation turned to breakfast.
"I'll have oatmeal," she said.
"Oatmeal?" I asked. "You know what that means, don't you?"
Ao Akua,
Joe
PS -- Photo is again by master photographer Rodney Bursiel. He says this one is my "Sopranos" look.
Notes: To learn about Edward L. Bernays, the "father of spin," go see www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1999Q2/bernays.html
To learn "Why Freud Was Wrong," go see the book Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science, and Psychoanalysis by Richard Webster.
To learn how Bernays made Freud famous, go hunting for the fascinating book, Biography of An Idea by Bernays himself. I have several copies, including a very rare one signed by Bernays. This gem is hard to find but fascinating reading. Bernays had an ego bigger than the planet, so, according to his own book, he single handedly influenced the modern world with his ideas. A fascinating little man and a hypnotic big book. Read it. Freud would approve.
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posted by Joe Vitale | 7:41 AM
5 Comments:
I'm not sure what your dream means. One of my hobbies is that I custom build computers. Many of the electronic components have very small writing that it seems I can't see well enough to be legible these days. Friday night I bought my first pair of reading glasses ever. I can now see my life up close much clearer than ever before. Seeing your life clearly is very important I think.
Do you believe in synchronicity?
Bruce Burns
www.yourownbestgood.com
This is the second time Phyllis Diller's name has popped up in the past week. Perhaps you're going to meet her soon.
I don't like this photo so much. The stickers on Francine's windshield really stand out (get photoshop and edit those out of the photo), and the red necklace (?) you're wearing makes it look like you're blowing a coach's whistle rather than smoking a cigar. In the photo you're looking down, which draws the viewer's eyes down and makes those windshield stickers and the cigar fight for attention.
Also the angle makes your legs look *really* short and parts of Francine are cut off on the sides.
If the dream was non-Freudian, and the glasses are just glasses, perhaps you're worried that you haven't been looking at something closely enough, and you need to pay it more attention.
Or maybe you just need glasses. :)
I captured an interesting article on my blog by Malcolm Gladwell about Bernays. Malcolm's perspective is interesting and offers stories about some stunts Bernays did to get women smoking. I think he did have a hand in molding cultural nuances in the US. You can find the post at http://credibilitybranding.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/marketers_dont_.html
Jennifer, thanks for the link. There's no doubt about it, Bernays had a hand in our culture. See my Barnum book, and my blog post, and the other links I gave. I tell the story of him urging women to smoke in my Barnum book.
joe
Dude,
Nice car, but don't you have a boat? An RV you're proud of? You should given each equal photo time
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