Human Conduct Under Eye of Science

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 194, 5 November 1927, Page 10

Human Conduct Under Eye of Science

Philosophy of Freud Father of Psycho-A na lysis REMARKS ON SHAW Professor Sigmund Freud. the p.oncer of psycho-analysis, told a special representative of the Melbourne "Herald,” who saw him at his home in the Austrian Alps, that 70 years had taught him to accept life with cheerful humility. fn the following article, Freud s principles arc explained. An interesting feature is his opinion of Bernard Shaw, the English author. Shaw, he says, has not the slightest conception of love; there is no real love affair in any of his plays. No mortal has come nearer than eud to explaining the secret of human conduct, says the correspondent. The few rears intervening since my 1,,.5t visit to him had multiplied the V I inkle s of his forehead. His face , Vll s drawn as if in pain, llis mind was alert, his spirit unbroken, his courtesy impeccable as of old, but a slight impediment in his speech alarmed me. A malignant affection of the upper jaw had necessitated an operation. Freud now wears a mechanical contrivance to facilitate speech. It embarrasses him more than his visitors •‘Perhaps the sods are kind to us,” ihc father of psycho-analysis said, “by making life more disagreeable as we grow older. In the end death seems less intolerable than the manifold burdens we carry.” Does it not mean something to you that your name will live?” I asked. Nothing whatever, even if it should live, which is by no means certain,” he said. “I am far more interested in 1 lie fate of my children. 1 hope their life will not be so hard. I cannot make their life much easier. The war pract a ally wiped out my modest fortune, the savings of n lifetime. However, I can carry on! My work still gives me pleasure. “Everything that Lives Perishes” "Do you believe in the persistence of personality after death in any form whatsoever?” "I give no thought to the matter. Everything that lives perishes. Why should I survive?” “Would you like to come bark in some form? Have you no wish for immortality?’’ “Frankly, no. If one recognises the •elfish motives which underlie all human conduct, one has not the slightest. desiro to return. Life moving in a circle would still be the same. The wish to prolong life unduly strikes me as absurd.” “Do you disapprove of the attempts of your colleague, Steinach, to lengthen human existence?” “Steinach makes no attempt to lengthen life. He merely combats old age. The Steinach operation sometimes arrests untoward biological accidents in their early stages. It makes life more liveable. It does not make it worth living. Secretly, every living being, no matter how intense life burns v ith him, longs for the cessation of tlie ‘fever called living.’ ” Analyses Himself In the study I saw a pile of manuscripts on the desk. •'What are you working on?” I asked. “I am writing a defence of psychoanalysis as practised by laymen. The doctors want to make analysis, except by licensed physicians, illegal. The doctors fight every new truth in the beginning. Afterwards they try to monopolise it.” “Do you ever.” I asked Professor J*reud, “analyse yourself?”