Guns, Freud, and the Crime Fighting MuayThai Expert
In comments, Sebastian Sassi lies again:
Lots of Freud scholars have suggested that fear of weapons is a sign of sexual and emotional retardation.
In reality, this is a lie perpetrated by Don Kates, Jr.–who is neither a Freud scholar or particularly honest.
“A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.”
This is not is not a statement that appears in any translation of any of Freud’s works. It is a paraphrase of a statement from the essay “Guns, Murders, and the Constitution” (February 1990) by Don B. Kates, Jr. where Kates summarizes his views of passages in Dreams in Folklore (1958) by Freud and David E. Oppenheim, while disputing statements by Emmanuel Tanay in “Neurotic Attachment to Guns” in a 1976 edition of The Fifty Minute Hour: A Collection of True Psychoanalytic Tales (1955) by Robert Mitchell Lindner:
‘Dr. Tanay is perhaps unaware of — in any event, he does not cite — other passages more relevant to his argument. In these other passages Freud associates retarded sexual and emotional development not with gun ownership, but with fear and loathing of weapons. The probative importance that ought to be attached to the views of Freud is, of course, a matter of opinion. The point here is only that those views provide no support for the penis theory of gun ownership.’
Due to misreading of this essay and its citations, this paraphrase of an opinion about Freud’s ideas has been wrongly attributed to Freud himself, and specifically to his 10th Lecture “Symbolism in Dreams” in General Introduction to Psychoanalysis on some internet forum pages: alt.quotations
Sebastian needs to apologize for lying about Freud and threatening my family.
—JG
Comment by Sebastian-PGP — December 10, 2007 @ 10:22 pm
Congrats on exposing that gun nut’s idiotic misquotation of Freud. It’s amazing how much right-wing misinformation, lies and deception there is floating around the wingnut blogosphere. These people live off in their own little reality, hermitically sealed from the real world. I try to argue with them occasionally and it’s quite frustrating as they simply regurgitate what they hear on Rush’s show. You have about as much of a chance of talking sense into them as you would a member of Jim Jones’ cult.
Marc McDonald
http://www.beggarscanbechoosers.com
Comment by Marc McDonald — December 11, 2007 @ 12:40 pm
Wow. A Wiki source. I’m convinced.
Comment by thirdpower — December 11, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
Thanx, Marc.
….
The first thing you learn about GunLoons is that their quotes are almost always bogus.
Comment by Administrator — December 11, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
Third: It’s very easy to check if you don’t trust Wiki. Simply go to Kates’ reference and see if it says what Kates claimed Freud said. It doesn’t. Further, it’s not a great task to do a search of all Freud’s works and see if the quote appears there. It doesn’t.
………..
This is why you’re a JC grad.
Comment by Administrator — December 11, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
So it’s my job to debunk your unsourced work ‘debunking’ a myth. Right. Sure. That’s the way it works,
Apparently it was so easy you didn’t do it.
Comment by Jon Sullivan — December 11, 2007 @ 7:28 pm
JS: Again, just go to the Kates’ cite.
Comment by Administrator — December 11, 2007 @ 7:36 pm
Jon Sullivan is my muse.
Comment by thirdpower — December 12, 2007 @ 8:41 am