WHEN FREUD LAYED DOWN ON HIS COUCH
He was exhausted as a monarch flying south in October.
Listening all day while chomping on a cigar wore him out.
When he finally took time out to rest on his couch,
his first free association was to exclaim: What a mechayeh!
His patients were crazier than he ever thought possible.
Only priests listening to Confession could have heard
such bizarre tales of incest, treachery and calumny
in outwardly respectable middleclass families.
He heard fantasies that shocked and amazed him—
imaginations gone wild in sexual desire and rage.
He loved his patients like a Jewish mother,
and taught them how the ego juggles
the impulsive demands of the id and superego.
He never knew what a genius he was.