Something funny my daughter sent me.
Enjoy.
Jabou
From Chicken Soup for the College Soul ...
There is no joy quite like a visit from your college kid
after he's taken half a semester of Psychology 1.
Nosirree.
Suddenly you're living with Little Freud, and he's got your
number. With all this education, he now knows that a) your
habit of washing the dishes after each meal is
obsessive-compulsive, b) you smoke because you're orally
fixated, and c) you're making terrible mistakes raising his
younger brother.
No behavior escapes Little Freud's scrutiny. The simplest
conversations take on profoud and incomprehensible meaning.
Getting Little Freud out of bed in the morning, for
example, suddenly becomes a control issue:
"It's past noon," says the simple-minded mother. "Why
don't you get up?"
"Mom," says Little Freud in a voice fraught with meaningful
implication, "you're obsessing. You shouldn't disempower
me this way. Why allow my behavior to affect your own
sense of self? Besides, I have to stay in bed for a while
to experience the consciousness of my being when my being
is in nothingness."
"That's easy for you to say," says the simple-minded
mother. "But I say you're sleeping. Now get up and help
rake the leaves."
"Classic transference," says Little Freud in such a way
that the simple-minded mother can only conclude she must
have a psychic ailment as repulsive as fungus.
Little Freud also knows now that nothing is as simple as it
might seem. Calling him to dinner can set off an analysis
of your childhood:
"Dinner's ready," says Simple Mind.
"Don't you think it's time you stopped taking your Oedipal
rage out on me?" asks Little Freud. "Just because you
could never lure your father away from your mother is no
reason to resent me."
"What are you talking about?" asks Simple Mind. "I said
it's time to eat. What does that have to do with Oedipus?"
"In your unconscious, you associate food with pre-Oedipal
gratification, which sets off a chain of associative
thoughts leading straight to your rage, which you cannot
acknowledge and, therefore, you transfer your hostility to
me."
"Be quiet and eat your dinner before it gets cold," says
Simple Mind.
"Aha! says Little Freud, triumphant. "You see? Classic
regression."
Little Freud is also a skilled marriage counselor now that
he's done so much studying:
"I think it's time you two confronted your feelings,"
Little Freud tells his parents, who are simple-mindedly
enjoying a bottle of wine in front of the fireplace.
"We can't. We're playing cards," says Mr. Simple Mind.
"Your mother and I have a policy against confronting our
feelings and playing cards at the same time."
"Classic avoidance," declares Little Freud.
Little Freud is at his most eloquent, though, when he
points out how wrong his simple-minded parents are about
their method of raising kids:
"You're not parenting him properly," says Little Freud of
his younger brother. "You're too permissive, probably
because you're projecting your desire to be free of the
shackles of your own stifled childhood."
"What are you talking about?" says the simple-minded
mother, who is getting pretty tired of asking Little Freud
what he's talking about.
"And he also seems to have a lot of rage," says Little
Freud, plunging on. "His id has taken over, and his
super-ego has collapsed. He seems to be entertaining some
classic primordial fixations. In fact, I think he wants to
kill me."
"He doesn't really want to kill you, dear," says Simple
Mind. "I've hired him to do it for me."
"Classic projection," says Little Freud, disgustedly.
----------------------
Amie Siebert
[log in to unmask]
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."
Bill Watterson - Calvin and Hobbes
>>
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