GRGR(4) Reg Le Froyd 73.11

[Doug Millison]

"Wanted to look at the sea," Le Froyd explains. "I've never seen it. I am,
you know, related by blood, to the sea." (73.19)

Going way out on a limb, we might consider that TRP's alluding to Freud
here. What it might mean for him to rewrite Freud's biography and have him
commit suicide, who knows, but at the very least having Le Froyd jump off
the cliff, into a sea fraught with such symbolism, might fit a stereotype
of the crazy psychiatrist (and if anybody's looking for clues about what
TRP might think of psychiatrists see Dr. Hilarious in COL49).

"In 1925 Reg Le Froyd, an inmate at 'The White Visitation,' escaped" (73.11)

Some helpful people on the PSYARTS list suggest that the year 1925 is
significant in Freud's biography for several reasons:
--"Freud's "An Autobiographical Study" appeared in l925, of utmost
importance as an account of his scientific career and the development of his
theories"
--"Despite the publication of _An Autobiographical Study_ and "Negation,"
1925, I believe, was a difficult year for Freud;  Breuer and Abraham died,
and Rank's disagreements with Freud were becoming more pronounced.  The
following year, Freud modified his theory of anxiety in _Inhibition,
Symptoms, and Anxiety_ (in part as a response to Rank) and
published _The Question of Lay Analysis_."

I haven't read _An Autobiographical Study_ , and don't have a copy handy to
search for something that might have some bearing on TRP's allusion, but
1925 does jump out in  Freud's _The Interpretation of Dreams_:
"What I have in mind is a series of dreams which are based upon a longing
to visit Rome. For a long time to come, no doubt, I shall have to continue
to satisfy that longing in my dreams:  for at the season of the year when
it is possible for me to travel, residence in Rome must be avoided for
reasons of health." -- from the section "Infantile Material as a Source of
Dreams" in _The Interpretation of Dreams_ (1953 edition).

Freud added two footnotes to this:
[footnote added 1909:  "I discovered long since that it only needs a little
courage to fulfil wishes which till then have been regarded as
unattainable"; [footnote added 1925:  "and thereafter became a constant
pilgrim to Rome."
To this, the translator and editor of this edition, James Strachey, adds:
"The correspondence with Fliess gives repeated evidence of the emotional
importance to Freud of the idea of visiting Rome. He first fulfilled this
wish in the summer of 1901."

Who knows if this has any bearing at all on GR, but it is interesting that
this possible allusion to Freud leads -- tangentially --  to a footnote in
_The Interpretation of Dreams_ that reflects a deep personal longing of
Freud's, and which was added to a revised edition of this book by Freud
himself in 1925.  At the very least, I've been able to work into the
Pynchon-L discussion another tid-bit from my reading of these past few
months.


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