On psychoanalysis, not that Mrs. Whitehead understood terribly well what psychoanalysts' job really is.
"So with the psychoanalysts. Isn't it inevitable that they should develop a taste by all this digging, digging digging, for unconscious secrets?" asked Mrs. Whitehead. "I should think they ended by digging simply for the fun of digging. And what is there in it for the poor, who must need it as badly if not worse than the rich if there is anything in it? I dont notice any free psychoanalyst clinics. It strikes me that regular physicians are often paid rather meagerly and these psychoanalysts are doing themselves rather well. Isn't it something of a craze for prying into other people's minds and getting you to tell what perhaps you ought to tell, but perhaps not to the prier who is trying to get you to tell?" (31)
Price makes good use of Whitehead's comments about treating guests when he talks about his own writing. It's a beautiful usage, and might seem especially jarring when today all that we've managed to do is to shock readers with our first sentences.
"I am a firm believer," said the philosopher, "in letting guests start off on commonplaces till they have shaken down and got the temperature of the room." He smiled expansively. "Even the weather, or the climate, is an unfailingly good topic." (49)
"So with the psychoanalysts. Isn't it inevitable that they should develop a taste by all this digging, digging digging, for unconscious secrets?" asked Mrs. Whitehead. "I should think they ended by digging simply for the fun of digging. And what is there in it for the poor, who must need it as badly if not worse than the rich if there is anything in it? I dont notice any free psychoanalyst clinics. It strikes me that regular physicians are often paid rather meagerly and these psychoanalysts are doing themselves rather well. Isn't it something of a craze for prying into other people's minds and getting you to tell what perhaps you ought to tell, but perhaps not to the prier who is trying to get you to tell?" (31)
Price makes good use of Whitehead's comments about treating guests when he talks about his own writing. It's a beautiful usage, and might seem especially jarring when today all that we've managed to do is to shock readers with our first sentences.
"I am a firm believer," said the philosopher, "in letting guests start off on commonplaces till they have shaken down and got the temperature of the room." He smiled expansively. "Even the weather, or the climate, is an unfailingly good topic." (49)
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