The Germans have what many outsiders might consider an obsession with shit. Athropologist Alan Dundes wrote about how this obsession is manifested in language and journalist Michael Lewis devoted a whole chapter in a recent book about how it’s reflected in German additudes about the economy and finance. But the clencher (no pun intended) for me was a TV show that toured a factory in Germany that makes high-end bathroom fixtures. The warehouse was filled to the ceiling with toilets being prepared for shipment in two distinct areas. The woman giving the tour pointed out that the toilets in one section were for export and those in the other were destined for domestic retailers. The toilets intended for Germans had a “shelf” in the bowl that allowed the user to inspect their dry stool before flushing.
I suppose it’s a cultural quirk and not a psychological one, but I couldn’t help thinking of the scene in Basic Instinct where Michael Douglas insists to his psychiatrist that he doesn’t look at his shit before he flushes.