JENS HAAS
WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A TRAFFIC CONE
First published in 2008 Printed in the United States Copyright Jens Haas 2008 Photography, concept and design by Jens Haas JENSHAAS.COM All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Jens Haas.
WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A TRAFFIC CONE
Preface
A fragment from the dream of a young woman who, according to Sigmund Freud, suffered from agoraphobia as the result of her fear of temptation (Nachträge zur Traumdeutung, Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse 5, 6, 1911):
“I am walking in the street in summer; I am wearing a straw hat of peculiar shape, the middle piece of which is bent upwards, while the side pieces hang downwards (here the description hesitates), and in such a fashion that one hangs lower than the other. I am cheerful and in a confident mood, and as I pass a number of young officers I think to myself: You can’t do anything to me.
As she could produce no associations to the hat, I said to her: “The hat is really a male genital organ, with its raised middle piece and the two downward-hanging side pieces.” It is perhaps peculiar that her hat should be supposed to be a man, but after all one says: Unter die Haube kommen (to get under the cap) when we mean: to get married. I intentionally refrained from interpreting the details concerning the unequal dependence of the two side pieces, although the determination of just such details must point the way to the interpretation. I went on to say that if, therefore, she had a husband with such splendid genitals she would not have to fear the officers; that is, she would have nothing to wish from them, for it was essentially her temptation-phantasies which prevented her from going about unprotected and unaccompanied. This last explanation of her anxiety I had already been able to give her repeatedly on the basis of other material.”
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Jens Haas
www.jenshaas.com
JENSHAAS.COM