Is it possible that, despite Freud's perennial disaffection with his doctor identity, he had never betrayed his homage to an experiential journey that had, in many ways, sparked his innovative embarkation on a new way of understanding the relationship between mind and body?Ĭould this be an echo of Freud's debt to his medical roots? A permanent transitional object, companion to the antiquities on his desk? Pictures of and references to his prized possessions, his consulting room and couch abound, but I have not seen pictures of or read of his doctor tools (otoscope, sphygmomanometer, reflex hammer, etc.) except for his doctor's bag (residing in London's Freud Museum), at the ready for his reputed housecalls. Disaffected physicians do not readily relinquish this identifying affiliation, even with disapproval of their profession's flaws. Even retired physicians often retain the prefix of "doctor" with a permanent sense of belonging to a select group. The stethoscope had been invented by the French physician Laennac in 1816 Golding Bird had developed a stethoscope with one earpiece in 1840 that was supplanted mostly by the binaural model soon after in 1852.Įver since the stethoscope was invented, it became the identifying "trademark" of the medical profession, a symbol of pride of membership in a noble profession.
But why at his age would he be carrying such an instrument? He had long since abandoned medical practice in favor of a new way of looking at illness, so why would he continue to carry a half-concealed stethoscope? Binaural instruments were in long-time use in his medical school and practice years before this photo was taken. My first guess about the hidden object is that it is one earpiece of a binaural stethoscope.
0 kommentar(er)
