"get ones ashes hauled", and sweeping ones (or someones) chimney

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Mon Jul 19 19:31:34 UTC 2010


At 2:19 PM -0400 7/19/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Freud to Jung, Nov. 21, 1909:
>
>"It has also been explained to me why a chimney sweep is regarded as a good
>omen: chimney sweeping is an action symbolic of coitus."

I'm wondering who sat Sigmund Freud down and patiently explained this
interpretation to him.  (I don't suppose he needed much convincing.)

LH

>See, a *male* puts himself into a *dark channel-like place*.  The testicular
>cancer would be, to the unconscious, an ironic "punishment" for symbolically
>"doing it."
>
>Sense or SWAG? Seriously, you gotta wonder.
>
>JL
>
>On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 11:51 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: "get ones ashes hauled",              and sweeping ones
>>  (or
>>               someones) chimney
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  In any case, wouldn't it be the building owner--not the chimny sweep--who
>>  "got his ashes hauled" (in contrast to the young boy who hauled those
>>  ashes)?
>>
>  > --Charlie
>>

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