For The Anal-Retentive
Category: Foolery
I'm more the type to say constipated than anal-retentive, which doesn't really come from anywhere, but what comes to mind when trying to figure the purpose for these things on the left. It's also going back to the old haunts that spring odd surprises, such as the enema jewelry (yup!) that comes via Mighty Girl. I love her.
Incidentally, I do not claim ease on using the words 'anal-retentive', even if it makes me sound like an intellectual well-versed in Freudian theory. What's easier to understand is what I learned through The Straight Dope which I quote here in part:
"The invention of indoor plumbing at the end of the last century was a major source of misery in that it demanded much more control of defecation than was necessary in a world of chamber pots and outhouses. Large families such as Freud's (eight to ten people) had to share a single toilet, and Anna and Sigmund were evidently plagued by constipation. Attempts at early toilet training may have made things worse. As the number of toilets per person has grown and ideas about toilet training became more liberal (promoted not only by Dr. Spock but also the washing machine and Pampers), anal retention came to seem less central to psychological life."
It may seem a little comical to you that Freud erected an impressive theoretical edifice on the fact that he couldn't get into the bathroom in the morning. Fact is, there has been a bitter debate over the last couple decades about the extent to which Freudian theory and psychoanalysis generally are (or were) based on similar bits of half-baked speculation. Some argue that psychoanalysis lacks any scientific basis, and Cecil must say he does not see much effort on the part of the great psychoanalytic theorists to come up with testable hypotheses, the hallmark of the scientific method. No need to get into that now, but all parties to the debate apparently agree that "anal retentive" is slung about strictly for its comic value today, not because it has any intellectual heft.
Hmm. Makes sense.
I'm more the type to say constipated than anal-retentive, which doesn't really come from anywhere, but what comes to mind when trying to figure the purpose for these things on the left. It's also going back to the old haunts that spring odd surprises, such as the enema jewelry (yup!) that comes via Mighty Girl. I love her.Incidentally, I do not claim ease on using the words 'anal-retentive', even if it makes me sound like an intellectual well-versed in Freudian theory. What's easier to understand is what I learned through The Straight Dope which I quote here in part:
"The invention of indoor plumbing at the end of the last century was a major source of misery in that it demanded much more control of defecation than was necessary in a world of chamber pots and outhouses. Large families such as Freud's (eight to ten people) had to share a single toilet, and Anna and Sigmund were evidently plagued by constipation. Attempts at early toilet training may have made things worse. As the number of toilets per person has grown and ideas about toilet training became more liberal (promoted not only by Dr. Spock but also the washing machine and Pampers), anal retention came to seem less central to psychological life."
It may seem a little comical to you that Freud erected an impressive theoretical edifice on the fact that he couldn't get into the bathroom in the morning. Fact is, there has been a bitter debate over the last couple decades about the extent to which Freudian theory and psychoanalysis generally are (or were) based on similar bits of half-baked speculation. Some argue that psychoanalysis lacks any scientific basis, and Cecil must say he does not see much effort on the part of the great psychoanalytic theorists to come up with testable hypotheses, the hallmark of the scientific method. No need to get into that now, but all parties to the debate apparently agree that "anal retentive" is slung about strictly for its comic value today, not because it has any intellectual heft.
Hmm. Makes sense.
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