A Complex Matter: Psychiatrists and the Humble Couch
Which settee is the planet’s best known? And where is it?
The answer lies in the famed Freud Museum. This was in Freud’s London household — where he would set up his distinguished consulting rooms and sofa — after leaving Austria just before German occupation. Taking prominence is the great man’s study, precisely as it was in his era, and resting there is his settee, butt of innumerable satires and gags.
Just like the father of psychiatry, the United Kingdom’s foremost settee didn’t start its life in Britain. It had set out on the path to fame in its first consulting room at Berggasse 19 in Vienna. As you might know, this is the address of Freud’s home while researching and devising his pioneering hypotheses of psychiatry.
The sofa under discussion (comfortable, casual and inviting) is understandably iconic, from its significant function during his work. Sadly, this tends to overshadow the fact that Sigmund Freud’s own chair resides in the study. The easy chair, “green tub” appearance, was where he observed from, behind the occupants of the seat, while they “free associated”. Ultimately, dream analysis, easy chairs and everything else commonly tied to Freudian techniques present an abundant supply of humor for writers, performers etc. from the beginning, and maybe the most quoted of them in this vein is Woody Allen, a student, a patient and an observer of psychiatrists (aka shrinks) for roughly forty years. “I have an interesting case. I’m treating two sets of Siamese twins with split personalities. I’m getting paid by eight people.” Many people search for hilarity in psychiatry, psychiatrists and their settees. Fictional psychiatrist Niles Crane offers “I really must run. I’m due at my sexual addiction group, and I don’t like to leave them alone for too long.”
More from Dr. Niles Crane, perhaps? He’s also declared “I have a session with my multiple personality. Not to worry: if I’m late, he can just talk amongst himself.”
It isn’t just analysts who give rise to wit touching on furniture. I give you a political observation: “Senator Hillary Clinton is attacking President Bush for breaking his campaign promise to cut carbon dioxide emissions, saying a promise made, a promise broken. And then out of habit, she demanded that Bush spend the night on the couch.”
