Which recliner is regarded as the planet’s best known? Have you any idea where it is?
Check in the famed Freud Museum, Hampstead. This was in Freud’s London dwelling place, where he treated patients. The centerpiece is his study, precisely as it was while he used it, and located there is London’s most iconic sofa, cradle of numerous theories, maligned in a multitude of lampoons and wisecracks.
The sofa itself wasn’t built in Hampstead, however. Freud made use of the same lounger when he was based in Vienna’s Berggasse 19. As you perhaps know, this is the address of Freud’s residence while he began researching and devising his ground-breaking psychotherapeutic hypotheses. The recliner itself (covered in carpeting and seeming casual, inviting and cozy) is justifiably well known, from its necessary place during the development of psychoanalysis. Sadly, this mostly overshadows the fact that the father of psychiatry’s own chair has been preserved in the study. This seat was where he sat, behind the occupants of the lounger, while they free associated. Psychotherapy, dream analysis, recliners and everything else typically linked to Freudian theories present an abundant font of humor for entertainers, writers and comics for decades since, and maybe the best funnyman in this area is Woody Allen, someone highly familiar with psychiatrists (A.K.A. shrinks) for about 40 years.
“And Freud, another great pessimist. I was in analysis for years and nothing happened. My poor analyst got so frustrated, the guy finally put in a salad bar. ”
“Donnie, your analyst? I call mine Dr. Chomsky, you know? Either that or he hits me with a ruler.” Mary Wilke: Don’t psychoanalyze me. I have a doctor for that. Isaac Davis: Hey, you call that guy that you talk to a doctor? I mean, you don’t get suspicious when your analyst calls you at home at three in the morning and weeps into the telephone? Mary Wilke: Alright, so he’s unorthodox. He’s a highly qualified doctor. Isaac Davis: He done a great job on you, you know? Your self-esteem is a notch below Kafka. Of course, he is far from the only celebrity to come across wit in psychotherapy, psychotherapists and their settees. Abbey Lincoln used to say “I don’t have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapist is in my paint brushes.” Sitcom character Niles Crane remarks “A funny thing happened the other day. One of my patients had a rather amusing Freudian slip. He was having dinner with his wife and he meant to say “Pass the salt,” but instead he said “You’ve ruined my life, you blood-sucking shrew.”
Michelle Pfeiffer remarked “Like all parents, my husband and I just do the best we can, hold our breath and hope we’ve set aside enough money for our kid’s therapy.”
Also, there’s always the old carrot: “Psychiatrists do it on the couch.”