An Elephant of One's Own

There ought to be a cartoon to go with this title, but I'm buggered if I'm going to play with Paintbrush for an hour (urgent translation waiting in Inbox). So you'll have to make do with a description. From toes to neck, shadow stretches about four feet. From neck to cheekbones, another foot. From cheekbones to top of head, ooh, I dunno, about another five feet, let's live a little. In short (and he wasn't), Burrhus Skinner had a very, very tall forehead indeed. But don't take my word for it. I feel for this guy. I really do. To start with, having a name like Burrhus can't be an easy slog - obviously, like my former schoolmate Andrew de Jode, you would want to keep away from Spanish speaking countries for a kickoff. Not only that, but he had the misfortune to have an Arts degree hanging round his neck like a scarlet letter his whole life (plus a secret ambition to be a writer: again, check). All right, lately I'm rethinking this one, and there may...

Before you say anything: yes, of course I know that psychoanalysis is a pseudoscience. (Sometimes I think science is a pseudoscience, but let's not go there today.) So no, you won't catch me believing in anything, other than people, for which I do make an exception. However, as I already pointed out with regard to Christianity, you don't need to believe in stuff to find it interesting. And what I found interesting about the psychoanalytic method is that there seems to be something alive inside it. I mean, if you take the box and shake it, you hear a faint, plaintive squeaking from inside. Which is more than most pseudosciences will give you, let's face it. In my case it happened like this. A friend recommended Merce, who was reputedly good at fixing broken children. I wasn't a child - must have been getting on for forty by then - but whoever recommended her to me must have thought I was, or that I acted like one, or something. Anyway, I had never been to a shrink...

Por si lo perdieron la última vez (y no me voy a poner a buscar el post) he aquí un resumen breve del Reality Principle freudiano: El mono está subido entre las ramas del Árbol A, a una distancia considerable del suelo. Entre las ramas del Árbol B, al lado, divisa un guineo (sí, ya sé, ya sé. Licencia poética). El guineo está tan cerca, que si extiende el brazo, casi lo puede tocar. Casi. Casi... Pero no. Entonces, poco a poco, el mono se da cuenta de que tiene una elección. Por un lado, puede seguir extendiendo el brazo, esforzándose por llegar al dichoso guineo, arriesgando su vida en el intento, incapaz de alejarse de tan apetitoso premio (así obedeciendo al Principio de Placer). Por el otro, puede bajar del Árbol A y ponerse a trepar el Árbol B, para conseguir el premio. Para hacer esto, tendrá que alejarse de la fruta, hacer bastante esfuerzo físico, y dejar pasar los minutos, y siempre con la posibilidad de que otro mono llegue y coja la fruta antes de que él haya conseg...