Roy Grinker’s Freud Stories, Part 2
This is the second of a two-post set of stories about Freud told by Roy Grinker, Sr., MD. The first post, including the details of how Grinker came to be analyzed by Freud, who the heck Grinker is, and how I heard the stories from Grinker can be found at Freud & His Damn Dog
Freud Slips
Because Freud needed a lamp where he sat when he analyzed patients and the nearest electrical outlet was some distance away, a long cord ran across the floor. Once, during a session in which Grinker mentioned an unfamiliar locale, Freud, who habitually checked geographic references on a map in a room adjacent to the office where he treated patients, arose from his chair to consult the map and tripped over the cord, falling face-first on the floor. Grinker, who was on the couch, realized that Freud was lying prostrate on the floor with blood gushing from his nose. Anyone who has been in an analytically oriented therapy will grasp the terror Grinker felt and understand that, as Grinker himself reported, “It took me a while to get over that!”
Cascades Of Insight
Grinker’s analysis took place after Freud had already undergone operations on his jaw and tongue because of cancer, one consequence of which was that Freud could no longer smoke cigars. Another result was that Freud, when he became excited while making an interpretation that he thought was especially insightful or revelatory, would spray spittle excessively as he spoke. The spatial arrangement of Freud’s office furniture dictated that a substantial portion of that spray would end up in Grinker’s face. While perhaps not the optimal situation, it did have the advantage, as Grinker observed, that he knew he was making progress in his analysis whenever his face was wet with saliva.
Reassurance From Dr. Freud
Grinker’s wife was worried about the effects the analysis might have on her husband (this was in the early 1930′s when analysis was considered radical and dangerously sexual) and insisted on talking to Freud. After listening to her concerns, Freud reassured her that, even after the analysis was competed, she “would still recognize him [Grinker].”
Julie and Freud
I’ll end our Freudian session not with a story but a how about that.
Julie,1 having found that being “Best of EST” hadn’t resolved all of her issues, went into analysis. As it turns out, her analyst had been analyzed by Grinker, who as now we all know, was analyzed by Freud, making Freud Julie’s Great Grand-Analyst.
I see our time is up for today.
- Julie was my much-beloved, fiercely smart, extraordinarily sexy wife, who died in 1999 from cancer diagnosed the week of our wedding nearly 20 years earlier. She was also a prize-winning writer. This blog includes many other posts about her and the unlikely but true story of our romance as well as several of her short stories and other pieces. For the location of the various content about or by Julie, see Julie FAQ. [↩]
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