Freud&Baudelaire

 Freud&Baudelaire

Freud once remarked that he could have achieved fame much earlier, but chose not to, which is why it came later. He also suggested that the psychology behind a man’s act of indecent exposure is rooted in the expectation that the woman witnessing it will respond in kind.

I bring this up because I wanted to verify these claims by Freud and explore their deeper implications—he even posited that some people enter into marriage out of a fear of engaging in orgies.

In my own view, the reasons are different: one might lack the financial means to support multiple partners, or—even if one had the means—one might refrain because it would inevitably cause a woman to suffer. But the true reason is simply that one loves a single, specific person.

Baudelaire, for his part, once spoke of feeling a sense of guilt when engaging in sexual relations with a woman.

I do not mean to paint myself as some sort of saint, but for those rare individuals who marry someone they truly love—someone they deeply respect and with whom they find joy in mutual love—both Freud’s theory of animalistic instinct and Baudelaire’s theory of guilt seem entirely irrelevant.