Sigmund Freud's Couch
Though Sigmund Freud is widely known in the field of psychoanalysis (though his ideas have been somewhat discredited these days), what is surprising to most people is the significant influence that golf had on the development of Freud’s thoughts on psychoanalysis and his work in general.
Born in Freiburg , Czechoslovakia in 1856, his family moved to Vienna four years later and entered the University of Vienna in 1873 as a medical student. Freud didn’t pick up on golf until about1896 when he was introduced to the game through a friend. His buddy convinced him to go on a golf junket to Scotland organized by a group of Freemasons. This left him to wonder about the people crawling about the heaths of Scotland looking for their golf balls. Not coincidentally, he first coined the term psychoanalysis in 1896. He did play several rounds while in Scotland and in 1897, becoming worried about his obsession with the game, begins self-analysis. He was particularly, interested in the manifestations of First Tee Fright but didn’t formally address this until later in his career in 1926 with the publication of his seminal work ‘Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety’.
Not an especially good golfer, Freud was never interested in the mechanical aspects of the game but focused rather on the mental aspects of golf. Interviewing hundreds of golfers while on the course, he later moved to the local watering holes after the game to better facilitate note taking and ultimately, moved the interviews back to his office and the comfort of his couch.
Gleaning deep insights into the golfer psyche, he started to publish his works on a regular basis. In 1905 he published ‘Three Essays on Sexuality, Jokes and Their Relation to Golf.’
In 1921, after analyzing the very deep relationships developed within the golfing foursome and later how they relate to the beer cart girl, he publishes ‘Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego’, in which he applies a social context to psychoanalysis.
From here, of course, many others started to pick up on where Freud left off.
Tags: golf, mental game, psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud