Sexual Immaturity?

[VaughnT]

I've often seen Siggie Freud quoted as saying something to the affect that the fear of firearms was a sign of "sexual immaturity", but I can't figure out what he means from that single, out-of-context quote. Can anyone elaborate?

I understand that fearing a tool, which a firearm is, would indicate a general lack of maturity because it's not logical to fear an inanimate object. But, why does he bring sex into the equation? Am I misinterpreting his use of the word "sexual"?

Would a person fear a hammer because they were threatened with one in their childhood by a drunk father/uncle/friend? How does the firearm differ from a hammer in this regard?


Anyhow, it's been bugging me for some time. If anyone could offer some insight (is there a doctor in the house?), I would be most appreciative.

 

[Stand_Watie]

I haven't been able to track down the specific quote either.

If you use 'sexual immaturity' interchangeably with 'emotional immaturity' it appears to make more sense.

 

[whm1974]

I've seen the same quote and it going something like "fear of weapons is a sign of emotional and sexual immaturity". Considering that our use of tools is one reason that we are on top of the food chain this make sense, and weapons are tools we use.

-Bill

 

[GunnySkox]

From what little I know about him, Freud's psychological ideas revolved around the idea that all of your behaviors stem from your subconscious thoughts and desires (discernable through psychoanalysis of dreams and such), almost all of which had something to do with sex. One of his more famous ideas is that some destructive behaviors are caused, or linked to, repressed sexual energy towards ones mother (*shudder*). So, by "Emotional" or "sexual" immaturity, I expect Freud means something like an inability to accept things as they really are, so the sexually insecure of immature person projects their fears and subconscious need for a discernable target of their anger and fear (IE: the fear of crime is very abstract, anyone could be a criminal, but with guns.. all guns are evil, and it's more convenient than saying all people are evil).

*shrug*

Or, more likely, I might know precisely squat about Sigmund Freud.

~Slam_Fire

 

[MuzzleBlast]

Sigmund Freud
A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.
General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1952)

This quote is posted all over the place. Maybe I need to hit the library and find a copy of the book, and look for this quote in context.

Edit: Having just found out that Freud died in 1939, and the actual publishing date of that book was 1920, I am a little more skeptical of this quote.

What did people do before there was Google?

 

[Lone Star]

Before Google, we used the subject card index at the library. Or, just browsed the appropriate book section for titles of interest.

Lone Star

 

[Bobster]

FWIW:
Freud's theories and psychoanalysis techniques have been debunked and rejected by just about all pyschologists and psychiatrists practicing today. Very few use those techniques today. The idea that all human emotional/psychological difficulties stem from early sexuality is not valid, and should serve only as a subject of bemusement in lighthearted casual conversations.

BOB

 

[hso]

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Sigmond Freud, General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1910, tr. 1920)

The fundamental idea being that persons having any irrational fear of an object have the basis for that fear in having failed to mature through the genital fixation phase of development. Weapons often having a genital/sexual connotation.

http://www.sla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/psychoanalysis/freud.html

Whether all of Freud's theories are considered credible is still debated, but there is little question that the (mis)use of his theories on sexual development and fixation/obsession are still the stuff of rhetoric.

 

[Billy the Kid]

I heard it had something to do with Phallic shaped barrel shooting phallic shaped bullets. The gun itself can almost be modeled after male genetailia, with the barrel being you know what and the revolver being the you know whats. (I think revolvers were the most popular in Freuds time.) And what does it do? it shoots out these little things... i dunno the symbolism is there and ive heard of it before, but i enver read this quote by freud, so im just guessing.

 

[c_yeager]

Freud's theories and psychoanalysis techniques have been debunked and rejected by just about all pyschologists and psychiatrists practicing today. Very few use those techniques today. The idea that all human emotional/psychological difficulties stem from early sexuality is not valid, and should serve only as a subject of bemusement in lighthearted casual conversations.

Says who? A fair portion of modern psychiatry revolves around events of a persons childhood.

The CENTRAL focus of Frued's theory (despite what some people will tell you) is the interaction of "id", "ego", and "superego". Look it up, its interesting stuff.

To say that "Freud's theories and psychoanalysis techniques have been debunked and rejected by just about all pyschologists and psychiatrists practicing today." is the same a saying that the entire practice of psychology has been debunked. Consider for a moment that all those phsycologists and psyciatrists that you are reffering to are practicing in a field that was FOUNDED by Freud.

 

[Black Snowman]

I don't know much about the quote, but I do remember a little about Freud from psych classes.

Freud was developing his theories during a period of European history when people were extremely sexually repressed as a general rule. So seeing that as a source of most if not all mental issues wasn't a long jump but obscured many other obvious issues and factors.

Modern psychology is still as much of a mystery as it was back then. The only common thread of effectivness seems to be "talk it out with someone you trust" and overcoming phobias by gradually facing increasing stimuli until you are used to it. Can't remember the phobias process name but it's OT anyway

 

[Tinker]

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity."

I guess, according to Sigmund's quote, my emotional developement level hinges entirely on which end of the barrel I'm looking at.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Freud was a cokehead.

lpl/nc

 

[sendec]

I would'nt dismiss Freud outright, and I'm not a Freudian. If nothing else he was a trailblazer in psychiatry and made it more acceptable to attempt novel approaches to mental health issues. Disagreed with, yes, debunked, hardly

I have used that quote myself and should take the effort of going to one of those places that have "books" that can be "read" just to coroborate it, (I am sorry, but Ithink that computer terminals should be banned from libraries) unless Hso wwill vouch for it.

If you think that referring to guns as phallic totems is off, I have seen holsters refered to as vaginal.......

 

[BerettaNut92]

.

 

[justashooter]

freud is right on the mark for simplistic, younger people. sexual drive is natures way of propogating the species.

those of us who have passed the stage of reproduction (but still could, in a pinch, and still like to keep in practice, just in case), have either developed into more sophisticated creatures, ruled by thought, rather than emotion, or have just gone completely down the ????ter.

then there are those who just never grew up, at all...

 

[Typhoon]

I tend to agree with Black_Snowman. Freud was a Victorian and a product of his time. His ideas were revolutionary, but were colored by both his own experiences (back then cocaine was not deemed the harmful addictive drug that it is now - he also was quite sexually repressed himself) and the times (Victorian society was in transition).

It is my understanding that psychologists build upon what Freud suggested, but adapt many of his ideas to modern experience.

As for myself, I suppose I could equate my love of shooting with "penis envy." Not hardly. I enjoy them, even if I don't personally own one....

Andrea

 

[joab]

a brief description of Freud's theories .
Everything in life begins and ends with the search for sexual gratification, especially if your hopped up on cocain

If you use 'sexual immaturity' interchangeably with 'emotional immaturity' it appears to make more sense.

To Freud both were actually the same thing

 

[XLMiguel]

Hmmmmm. Much sexual innuendo has mucho weapons reference. Rape = assault with a friendly weapon Indeed, is not 'penis' Latin for 'sword', and 'vagina' Latin for "sheath'? After all, 'it's not the gun, it's the gunner', 'firing blanks' for inferiilty, 'quick-on-the-trigger' for premature ejaculation, yadda-yadda. Fear of weapons, fear of sex? I guess I could make the leap -

 

[sendec]

Prefering leather holsters over Kydex HAS to mean something. I intellectually know that Kydex is technically superior, but I can only sheath my phalistol in something made of skin...

 

[Bob F.]

Yeah, and "they" told us to not bust our kid's butts, too. Look where we are now!
Stay safe (and sexual).
Bob

 

[hso]

VaughnT,

To answer your question, Freud is viewed to be the father of modern psychology and therefore one of the most important contributors to modern western culture. With that status behind him his statement that an exagerated fixation that either leads to lust or fear is based on a transferance of sexual "energy" and thereby fear of weapons is due to fixation on weapons as a representation for failure to mature beyond the phase where sexual gratificaton was the prime driver in a person's life. Such failure would manifest itself in a psychosexual fixation on weapons as in an over fascination with them or, negatively, in a irrational fear of them.

Whether all of his theories were correct is almost irrelevant in pop culture since his work has been made into part of the fabric of our society and therefore refererences to statements he may or may not have made are apocraphyly made to support one position or the other.

Of course, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar".

 

[gunsmith]

I used to not like Dr Sig much

but now I think he's cool.
As for your question...I have no idea.

 

[feedthehogs]

When I was 11, the school I was going to suggested to my parents I see a shrink because of my acting up in class.
After much analysis, nothing changed until I solved the problem myself.
I was raised in church and taught to be non combative, turn the other cheek. I had been picked on by a bulley in school and didn't fight back.
I told the shrink this. Aparently he never told anyone.
Finaly after 5 months of this, I clocked the bully and bloodied his nose and was okay after that. Except for being suspended for two weeks for fighting.

Years later in talking to my Dad about it, he relayed that the shrink said I had some sexual problems and to keep an eye on me.
I told my Dad what the problem was and he laughed and said the shrink never mentioned anything like that, just sexual problems.

Everything is sexual to these guys.

 

[buzz_knox]

Freud was a Victorian and a product of his time. His ideas were revolutionary, but were colored by both his own experiences (back then cocaine was not deemed the harmful addictive drug that it is now - he also was quite sexually repressed himself) and the times (Victorian society was in transition).

As I understand it, another key influence on Freud was the social pressure he received because of his theories. He initially stated that much of the problems of young girls during his time was due to sexual abuse by relatives. Victorian society was scandalized by the thought that any of the upper class (his principal patient base) would do such a thing. So, he was forced to recant and state that it was actually fantasies of sexual activity.