Quotable Freud

In the 75 years since the passing of Sigmund Freud, a cacophony of voices has arisen to dissect and debate his work. Today, in honor of the man himself, we invite you to experience Freud verbatim. Read on for ten quoteable quotes about two of his favorite subjects, love and sex, and their tyranny over the human psyche:

“We never have so little protection against suffering as when we are in love; we are never so desolate as when we have lost the object of our love or its love for us.” (from Civilization and Its Discontents)

“One can love one another properly only when one is close. What is a memory compared to what one can behold!” (from The Letters of Sigmund Freud)

 Sigmund Freud posing for sculptor Oscar Nemon

“Maybe you know already that love must be learned just like everything else. Thus it is hard to avoid making mistakes; it doesn’t have to be the first love that becomes the lasting one.” (from Sigmund Freud—Unterdess halten wir zusammen: Briefe an die Kinder)

“Sexual morality as defined by society, in its most extreme form that of America, strikes me as very contemptible. I stand for an infinitely freer sexual life, although I myself have made very little use of such freedom. Only so far as I considered myself entitled to.” (from The Letters of Sigmund Freud)

Sigmund Freud

“As we have discovered, the symptoms of neuroses are essentially substitutive satisfactions for unfulfilled sexual desires.” (from Civilization and Its Discontents)

“It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and a cruelty, too.” (from Sigmund Freud—Unterdess halten wir zusammen: Briefe an die Kinder)

“Sexual life does not begin only at puberty, but starts with plain manifestations soon after birth.” (from An Outline of Psycho-Analysis)

Sigmund Freud and his mother, Amalia

“The first organ to emerge as an erotogenic zone and to make libidinal demands on the mind is, from the time of birth onwards, the mouth.” (from An Outline of Psycho-Analysis)

“The inclination to gaze on what is specific to each sex in its nakedness is one of the original components of our libido.” (from The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious)

Sigmund Freud

“We are being asked neither more nor less than to abjure our belief in the sexual drive. The only answer is to profess it openly …” (from The Freud/Jung Letters)

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Freud Verbatim, a collection of quotes from Freud's published work and personal letters edited by Hannes Etzlstorfer and Peter Nomaler, will be available for purchase November 13th, 2014. For a chance to win a copy, enter our Goodreads giveaway!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Freud Verbatim

by Hannes Etzlstorfer

Giveaway ends September 30, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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