Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Comment Elsewhere: Freud's Projector

In a response to a post noting a particularly unhinged bit of public paranoia, I wrote
Some people really need to apply Occam's Razor more often. And Freud's Projector less.

I thought I was just being a little clever with the parallel construction, but Scott claims (and Google seems to confirm) that I was actually being original: the phrase "Freud's Projector" doesn't seem to appear elsewhere on the internet. I'm inordinately proud of this.

Say what you like about Freud -- I certainly do -- but the concept of 'projection' remains a powerful tool for diagnosing social pathologies.

4 comments:

Terry said...

Woohoo! Very cool, A! I've got to admit, though, Freud's Projector calls up some interesting images. I'm picturing an old 8mm reel to reel showing a train pulling into a tunnel. :)

Not Important said...

Excellent.

I've applied Freud's Projector by telling people that you can tell a politician's kinks by listening to what he rails against. And yes, I mean "he."

Ahistoricality said...

That's exactly what I'm talking about, yes.

I suspect, Terry, that Freud would have loved youtube....

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, you coined a phrase!



Anne Zook