Going All Freudian On Myself

This afternoon in a sleep-deprived semi-stupor, I thought it would be a good idea to try that Sigmund Freud psychology thing on myself, you know the free association bit he had people do in treatment when he was hopped on cocaine and jittering on about how men are obsessed with their mothers and all that gobbledy-gook. But maybe the drugs helped because I think this exercise can be very telling. You may be about to learn more about me than you bargained for. Or perhaps not.

Now, I am not trying to dig into the recesses of my mind here to uncover any hidden weirdness. I'm pretty confident most of that is already out of the closet, for lack of a better phrase. But I have a point here. Really. I’m going to write down all the words and pictures that come to mind when I think of certain topics, and theoretically, this will help me understand my brain, make better connections when I write, and be a generally more interesting person. 

The two words that just came to my head to work are ship and love, in that order.

And so we begin.

Perfect graphic, huh? [Found at stevensheets.com]

SHIP

Water

Sailing

Careful

Sunshine

Waves

Carefree

Broken

Sailboat

Alone

Empty

Blue sky

Gentle waves

Eh, not that interesting. My brain is tired. I should probably do this when I am not mostly asleep. To be honest, I'm bored reading it. I think that was about the most muted, dull version of word association I know of. Absolutely nothing about how I really think sailing is a metaphor for my mother or my marriage or laundry or some other obscurity. Let's try it again.

[DELETE] 

LOVE

Red

Forward

Aggressive

Generous

Banking

Strong

Steady

Peaceable

Refuge

Hopeful

More

Death together

Fortunate

Divine

Lavish

Retreat

Forgive

Manhattan

Plenty

Building

Manhattan, huh? That's kind of cool. Does that mean I love Manhattan? I'm glad to know this combination of ideas is what I think about love. Kind of intense. Aggressive, forward, huh? Well, okay then. The banking word was in the context of "banking on" something, relying on something, leaning into it. Quite the punch to the face this love one has been. But I like it. 

Daring. I'll add that one to the list.

Will I do this again? I don't know. I have yet to see if it was helpful. I added two more concepts later, but didn't include them. I think this may be a good writing exercise, but it's also nice to just see what's going on inside my head. So you can try it too, if you like. I will give you two words. You can put them in the comment box, blog on them, or just keep them to yourself. I won't be able to see them if you do that. And I won't like that as much. But they're your words. I can respect your right to privacy. 

So here are your words:

1. Bandage

2. Window

Go.