GRGR(4) Reg Le Froyd 73.11

[Robert L. Zamsky]

Excellent stuff, Millison.  I don't have much more to say than that,
right now.
But this bit of Freud tracking seems very compelling.  Certainly there
is much
in GR that draws on psychological issues -- the Pavlov references,
paranoia,
etc.  These are pretty surface-level, though, more thematic than
anything else.
I suspect, and Millison's post encourages me to think more about this,
that it
is also interesting/useful to think psychoanalytically about this text,
as opposed to
psychologically.  In such thinking, various characters' relationships to
the
rocket, language, "knowledge," and larger systems of control
(ego-ideals?) would
all become important.

Back to the thinking-board.

rz

Doug Millison wrote:

> "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.
>
> d o u g  m i l l i s o n  http://www.online-journalist.com