Freud Quote by Darian Leader
““So what do they do with their hands? Curiously, the most popular image of the listening psychoanalyst ascribes a notepad to them. When the New York department store Macy’s staged a window display of a psychoanalyst’s office in the 1950s, complete with patient on the couch, the analyst was depicted taking notes. Yet at that time this was by no means a habitual practice, and Edmund Bergler would swiftly publish an article about the myth of the note-taking analyst. Freud had advised against it, and in fact, a survey of analytic literature up to the present day shows that the single most common recorded practice for the listening psychoanalyst is not note-taking but knitting.””
About This Quote
The myth of the note‑taking psychoanalyst is debunked; historically, listening analysts often engaged in knitting, not documentation.
In simple terms: Analysts historically knit, not took notes.
Key Takeaway
Question professional stereotypes.
Themes
psychology
myth‑busting
history
Mood
intrigued
critical
Type
informative
analytical
When to use this quote
- therapy
- historical analysis
Key Concepts
clinical practice
cultural perception
Questions to Reflect On
- Why do myths persist in professional images?
- How does this affect client expectations?
A Different Perspective
Assuming all analysts take notes can mislead expectations.
![“By what psychoanalyst friends tell me, in the field of the emotional subconscious, the emotional resistances to be overcome are no longer the ones most people felt in Freud's [..] day. The moralizing respectability and the fear of sex evidenced in Freud's day no longer exist. I am told that…” quote by Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/3bc/massimo-piattelli-palmarini-26_freud_by-what-psychoanalyst-friends-tell-me-in_70209.jpg)
