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FACULTY FORUM
My Free Association with Freud
Soumitra Ghosh
I was lying down on a beautiful couch, totally relaxed free from all interferences and even cell phone was switched off (because that is the greatest interference of today at odd hour). The room was very comfortable with dimmed light. At the back Sigmund Freud was standing and saying, "You say whatever comes to your mind uncensored and since you are a psychiatrist we don't ask the exact age. Let me ask you, you are in which stage of life now?" Whatever hesitation I had before coming for the free association session went away and I started saying, "I am passing through the stage of donkey now." Dr. Freud was astonished to hear this because he had never heard of such a stage of life. "Can you kindly elaborate doctor about this stage because I am totally ignorant about this classification of stages of life."
"Yes Sir, this is an Indian classification of stages of life of middle-class people. Its origin has a religious and mythological background - Long back God had sent to this earth man, dog, donkey and an owl with longevity of forty years of life. But man being very intelligent and cunning he negotiated with each one of them by brief psychotherapy. He told donkey that if you have to live forty years of odd life it's too long and you will have to labour throughout your life and carry goods only. So better you donate twenty years of your strenuous life to me. Donkey was insightful and did so. Later man told dog - You're a stray dog everyone will stone you and you will have to feed yourself from the wastebasket of thrown away food, then what's the use of such a life? You donate half of your bad life to me. Dog was intelligent and did so. At last man said to owl, you can not see during daylight and only at night you will have to search for food like nocturnal. You are as good as blind. So what's the use of your blind half life? Owl understood about his future bad life and donated half of his life. So man's longevity became a hundred years by taking 20 years each from all three animals and 40 years of his own. Thereafter the first 40 years of his life, man lives like a man but after 40 years of age he bears the burden of family like a donkey till he is 60 years of age. At 60 years of age he is more or less abandoned by the family and he doesn't get good food to eat, his opinion is least regarded and wanders from one place to another and moves like a stray dog. After eighty years of age he is almost blind, stays in a dark corner of the house during the day with minimum facility, and at night he comes out hesitantly due to sleeplessness and searches for something of his choice like an owl. Can you understand Sir? So I am presently passing donkey's life because I have crossed 40 years of my life.”
Dr Freud lit his cigar and nodded his head with approval and asked me, "Tell me doctor about your professional life, what type of doctor you are and your motives as a doctor". “Sir, basically there are four types of doctors after getting the degree. First type Brahmins - doctors who are academically interested and go for teaching job. Second type Khatriya - who struggle for power in their field. Third type Baishya - who are businessmen like and take medical profession as a business and their main aim is to earn money. And the last types are Sudras - who have not yet decided about the aim in their profession whether there to be an academician, politician or businessman in their professional life. As I understand, these terms are new to you Sir because these are neither German nor Latin but of pure Indian origin. And Sir, I am still in confusion about my professional class and which way to go. I also have a lot of other conflicts and dilemmas about my psychiatry life.”
"Oomh!....." a sound came from Freud as he stood in front of me with his bright penetrating hypnotic eyes. I continued........ "Psychiatrists are megalomaniac and they feel they are omnipotent. They penetrate their nose in every sphere of life from religion to anthropology and even terrorism of today's world. When patients come they start treatment but where to terminate they are silent about it. They have invented so many therapeutic guidelines committee but practically I find all are useless when a psychotic or neurotic patient asks about the duration of pharmacotherapy.” All my pent-up frustration came out with my eyes closed and then after a pause I took a deep breath and felt very relaxed.
"Elementary doctor, elementary. Nowadays you call yourself biological psychiatrist and even you have found biological basis of my psychodynamic psychotherapy. It is obsolete for busy psychiatrist of today. But it is the only answer to your question, remedy for a complete cure." This is what Dr Freud started telling uninterruptedly. I was wondering about "Elementary doctor, elementary" this is not the patent word of Sigmund Freud; these were dialogues of Sherlock Holmes to Dr Watson. I was confused and tried to visualise clearly to whom I was talking to.
Then suddenly I heard a huge bang and I found the book which I was reading, ‘The Passions of the Mind - a novel of Sigmund Freud’, fell down from my hand as I was fast asleep on my study table. And another book from the bookshelf ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ smiling at me. Author isAssociate Professor of Psychiatry at Silchar Medical College Hospital, Silchar.
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