# Let's psychoanalyze the hell out of "The Wizard of Oz" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922 "2009-01-12T16:24:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/21 "2009-01-12T20:34:32Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Does Auntie Em, though? The farmhands are the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow. The traveling fortune teller was the Wizard, Miss Gulch was the Wicked Witch. No Auntie Em or Uncle Henry analogues that I can recall. \*\*Captain Amazing \*\*has answered more brilliantly than i can aspire to. ---
**Author:** ![Clivas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@Clivas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clivas)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/22 "2009-01-12T20:54:53Z")
It’s sexual. It’s always sexual. Dorothy is a pretty young farm girl just coming into her own. Still innocent in action for the most part, of course, but the hormones are stirring up a terrible bee’s nest in her mind. Let’s take a look at how she fell into the pig pen for instance. It is a well known fact that men _are_ pigs. Did you see how she lost balance? That was the most obviously fake fall I’ve ever seen. Clearly she wanted to jump in with the pigs to satisfy her fantasy of being lost in a sea of men but wanted to make it look unintentional to an observing eye. It was also a great opportunity for her to be saved by one of the many men in her life. Even though it was nothing more than concern and fright on his part, he was unwittingly playing hero to her damsel in distress. Um. Yeah. That’s all I got. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/23 "2009-01-12T21:02:47Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > \*\*Captain Amazing \*\*has answered more brilliantly than i can aspire to. Ah, I read that. I was just wondering since you mentioned that before his response. In all seriousness, does the character who plays Auntie Em play someone in Oz, the way that some of the other characters do, like Margaret Hamilton playing Miss Gulch and the witches? (Checking IMDb, I don’t think she does.) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/24 "2009-01-12T21:06:31Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Ah, I read that. I was just wondering since you mentioned that before his response. In all seriousness, does the character who plays Auntie Em play someone in Oz, the way that some of the other characters do, like Margaret Hamilton playing Miss Gulch and the witches? (Checking IMDb, I don’t think she does.) Nope. I was aware when I began the thread that she and Henry were the two Kansas characters without Oz catalogs, but she can be explained away more easily. For Dorothy, Kansas = home = Auntie Em, and she actually sees a vision of her while in Oz, which is not true of Henry. His absence seems odder. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/25 "2009-01-12T22:01:12Z")
Of course Auntie Em and Uncle Henry don’t have analogs in Oz. The whole story is about Dorothy is about confronting her fears (and incidentally, her own sexuality) – in short, about growing up. There’s no room in her subconcious manifestation for parental figures. This is further proved by the impotence of the Wizard and the fact that the Wicked Witch of the West wasn’t simply vanquished, or even killed, but melted. It’s all about the passage from childhood to maturity. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/26 "2009-01-12T22:04:07Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Of course Auntie Em and Uncle Henry don’t have analogs in Oz. The whole story is about Dorothy is about confronting her fears (and incidentally, her own sexuality) – in short, about growing up. There’s no room in her subconcious manifestation for parental figures. This is further proved by the impotence of the Wizard and the fact that the Wicked Witch of the West wasn’t simply vanquished, or even killed, but melted. > > It’s all about the passage from childhood to maturity. I’m not buying the sexuality part and demand citations. Or cookies. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/27 "2009-01-12T23:38:38Z")
The sexuality part comes from the “ruby slippers.” Red has symbolized menstruation since the time of Little Red Riding Hood. The “ruby slippers,” the sign of a mature and fertile woman, are taken from her deceased mother-image and bestowed upon Dorothy (without her consent) by teh idealized mother figure. The Wicked Witch of the West, representing the post-menupausal and barren Auntie Em ants to take Dorothy’s fertility from her. The power to control her own sexuality was given to Dorothy with menarch. (The Wicked Witch is clearly an analogue of Auntie Em. In the castle, the image of Auntie Em changes to the mocking image of the Witch. Clearly they are the same person.) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/28 "2009-01-12T23:50:29Z")
I fear I must disagree with my esteemed colleague, **Professor Captain Amazing** regarding the import of water in Oz. I do see water as being crucial to Dorothy’s gaining supremacy, but it is not in a domestic context that such occurs. The _Wicked_ (emphasis mine) Witch of the West clearly represents Dorothy’s fear of her own sexuality, hence the unattractive appearance of said “witch”, the green skin a metaphor for Dorothy being “green” in terms of sexual experience (ie a virgin). The WWW rides a broomstick, an obvious phallic symbol and one that both startles and scares Dorothy; the WWW possesses powers that Dorothy does not understand and that Dorothy fears; and that the WWW covets Dorothy’s “ruby slippers”–a symbol of menstruation. And then the classic confrontation scene between WWW and D wherein Dorothy throws water (very important sexual image) over the WWW and the witch is destroyed. Water represents orgasm here and with the dousing (ie full arousal and release), Dorothy makes the “witch” melt–entering into the post-coital relaxation phase. Also note that Dorothy can ONLY go home again, once this melting has occurred-- that is, once she has conquered her fear of her own sexuality, she is empowered to reenter her world (which, it must be noted, is full of unattached older men–clearly Dorothy has more issues to be resolved and will need recurrent psychotherapy). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/29 "2009-01-13T00:01:54Z")
> [@](#): > > MGM studios can’t make the nut > they’re auctioning Dorothy’s shoes. > Gable is gone, the good witch is a slut > and I’ve got the parking lot blues. > > The wizard brought benzadrine smiles > and he never let Dorothy doze. > She died as she walked down the aisle > and all that remains is her clothes. > > Over the rainbow a Kansas tornado > can twist up a little girl´s head. > Aunt Em’s on relief and the tinman’s a thief > and even the wizard can’t wake the dead. > > La la la la la la la la la, > la la la la la la la. – [Don McLean](http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Magdalene-lane-lyrics-Don-McLean/5C2F8AC7A596AE9748256CA8002ADF6B) ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/30 "2009-01-13T01:02:34Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Skald the Rhymer writes: > > \> Why is Glinda the only major Oz character without a real-world analogue? For > \> that matter, why doesn’t Uncle Henry have an Oz analogue? > > Uncle Henry is a secret transvestite who occasionally goes to the big city and dresses up as a woman in certain bars there. The costume he wears looks just like the way that Glinda dresses. In her dream, Dorothy includes Uncle Henry by imagining him the way that he sees himself in his mind. Twisted, but I like it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/31 "2009-01-13T01:33:02Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion never existed at all, but were Dorothy’s manifestations of her id, ego, and superego. Ah, kinda like Curly, Larry and Moe, eh? ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/32 "2009-01-13T01:57:23Z")
**Eleanorigby** has made some insightful suggestions, but ultimately is a bit off. No, clearly what we have here is a breakdown if the virgin/mother/crone mythos brought on by rural isolation. Dorothy is the virgin on the cusp of womanhood, and miss Gulch is the crone. But dorothy’s own mother (deceased) and Aunt Em (childless) leave her with no role model for the mother. The ruby slippers represent not menstruation, but her virginity, she fears to ‘give it up’ because she fears she will transition directly from virgin to withered crone, do not pass go, do not collect 200 orgasms. Unfortunately, in addition to a lack of a mother figure, she is also isolated from any true masculinity and has only been exposed to weak, ambitionless hirelings and emasculated Uncle Henry. Driven mercilessly by her bodies demands, but with no direction in sight, she creates a fantasy destination where all will be resolved, however since no warrior/hunter archtype existed in Kansas, she will not find one over the rainbow and her journey will become one not just of self discovery, but self satisfaction as well, ‘you had the power all the time.’ Tapping her heels together (she did it a lot more than 3 times) is her discovery of masturbation which resolves the crisis and allows her to re-enter her normal world. the water and the WWW? Well, let’s just say that Dorothy was the first recorded female ejaculator in american fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/33 "2009-01-13T02:38:00Z")
Dorothy’s experience is best understood as a combination of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder, ultimately originating from her tour of duty as a LuRP in 'Nam. The upheaval of the 1960s’ social and political landscape is embodied by the cyclone that carries her to Oz-- after all, what is a tornado but an extremely powerful wind-- or “draft?” Her arrival in Oz is characterized by a sudden perception of vivid color, a common effect of “tripping” on LSD (“Blue Cheer”). The Yellow Brick Road was of course the A Shau Valley in Thua Thien Province. The Scarecrow likely represents Robert Macnamara, with the Tin Man symbolizing Henry Kissinger and the Cowardly Lion representing James Schlesinger. In order to return home, Dorothy is tasked by the Great and Powerful, yet ultimately deceptive and untrustworthy, Oz (Nixon) to destroy the Wicked Witch of the West (international Communism), whom she melts with a bucket of water (Agent Orange). When Oz fails to fulfill his promise, she is ultimately rescued by Glinda the Good (an underage Saigon prostitute) and returns home with the Ruby Slippers (gonorrhea). ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/34 "2009-01-13T03:30:41Z")
It’s a movie about sex, drugs and gang wars. Dorothy is initiated into the gang of Neo-Nazis (Munichland) where she proves herself by killing a rival gang leader. Little M (“mayor of the gang) is unconvinced of her loyalty and tells her to hit the road with another test. They send 3 of their own henchmen with her: a steely heartless killer known for using an ax, a don-won sleaze-ball who pretends to cat around but spends most of his time playing with himself (constantly pulling his tail), and a bag-man who represents the anti-Christ (he’s found crucified for failing to keep the stuff on him). The task is to make a hit on the head of another rival gang and take over the territory. She’s sent to a wizkid who is supposed to hook her up in exchange for drugs. She makes the mistake of sampling the drugs (opium from the poppy fields) and ends up sleeping with her peeps. This eventually leads her to heroin (which she swore she would do when monkeys fly out of her ass). It all comes undone when her little friend is captured and her companions start to have second thoughts. The mission to rescue the dog is really symbolic of 3 dirty old men in search of a little tail. The end of the movie leaves her flying high with the wizkid after all the killings and drugs. The final scene is of her in a drug-induced haze surrounded by her gang banging friends. The bedroom scene and the return of the little dog signify the old men got what they were after. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/35 "2009-01-13T05:24:49Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > When Oz fails to fulfill his promise, she is ultimately rescued by Glinda the Good (an underage Saigon prostitute) and returns home with the Ruby Slippers (gonorrhea). The problem I have with this is that Glinda is 53 years old. Talk about loving you long time. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/36 "2009-01-13T08:31:37Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > As soon as Dorothy gets to Oz, the first thing that happens is that she kills the Wicked Witch of the East. This is clearly a reference to her mother, who died in childbirth bearing Dorothy. But if we’re sticking to the movie we don’t know this, in fact we don’t know that Dorothy’s mother and father are dead at all. Dorothy doesn’t even realize she killed someone till Glinda points it out to her. So Glinda again is central to her reality. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > For further proof of that, note that she first lands in Munchkintown…the Munchkins, with their diminutive stature, clearly represent infants. How does small with old faces equal infants? > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Further, after the witch is killed, her slippers wind up on Dorothy’s feet…this is Dorothy’s “inheritance”, so to speak. But they don’t just happen to wind up on Dororthy’s feet. They are deliberately stolen from the East Witch and put their by Glinda. Again meddling where she doesn’t belong. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Her protests to Glinda and the Munchkins that “I didn’t mean to kill her”, shows her residual guilt at her mother’s death. Doesn’t her protest of innocence come AFTER the East Witch accuses her of murder not before? > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Glinda, who appears at this point, is Dorothy’s idealized version of her mother, glimmering and beautiful, but ultimately, unable to help her. But Glinda appeared before that point and didn’t appear but was summoned. But Glinda clearly was able to help Dorothy but deliberately chose NOT to do it. Glinda exposed Dorothy to danger only to resuce her to keep her from getting killed so she could kill the West Witch. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > At the same time Glinda appears, so appears the Wicked Witch of the West, upset that Dorothy “killed my sister”, But this was after long after Glinda appeared and after a 15 minute on screen interlude of singing and dancing and celebrating of the East Witches death, while Dorothy was given presents, such as lollipops for her murdering of a figure. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > and demanding the slippers the Wicked Witch of the East had. Incorrect the West Witch is more concerned of the crime committed and the fact that people are celebrating her sister’s death. In fact it, once again, Glinda who has to say “Aren’t you forgetting about the Ruby Slippers?” Then she procedes to use steal the West Witch’s rightful claim. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > The Wicked Witch of the West is, of course, no one other than Aunt Em (or at least Dorothy’s image of Aunt Em), whose sternness Dorothy fears (Aunt Em was the disciplinarian, compared to her more laid back Uncle Henry), and who she feels resents her for, as Dorothy sees it, "killing her sister (Dorothy’s mother). Again we never see this if we’re going strictly by the movie. Aunt Em at best in the movie is busy not unconcerned. If I recall correctly it is her Uncle Henry who give’s Toto to Miss Gultch while Aunt Em defends Dorothy saying “If I wasn’t a good Christian woman, I’d tell you what I think of you.” Also Em defends Dorothy saying “Just because you own half the county doesn’t mean you can tell the other half what to do.” Aunt Em in the movie shows love care and defends Dorothy. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Glinda being dead, is unable to help her “get home” (i.e., reenter into the loving family structure that Dorothy feels she misses out on due to her absent mother), so Dorothy has to go to the Emerald City and see the Wizard (Uncle Henry, as will be explained later). Glinda is shown to be alive throughout keeping Dorothy safe enough to do her dirty work > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > So, Dorothy sets off, and along the way meets her personal insecurities (the scarecrow, tin man, and lion, representing Dorothy’s own feelings of stupidity, fear of inability to love, and cowardice.) These images are so well known that I don’t really have to go into much detail, I’m sure, although I will point out that feelings of inadequacy, emotional abandonment and timidness aren’t uncommon among orphans). When do we ever get the suggestion Dorothy has those fears. She expresses, love to her dog, anger when she defends him from Miss Gultch, adventure by running away. She’s not afraid of strangers going into Professor Marvels trailer a man she doesn’t even know. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > The Wizard will help her get home, but only if she kills the Witch and brings back her broomstick. (Dorothy has externalized all her negative feelings at her situation…her orphanhood, the poverty in which she lives, etc., and placed it all on Aunt Em. Dorothy hardly lives in poverty. She lives on a farm in the 30s. She has a nice home, lots animals to eat and a farm which employes THREE hired hands and requires Dorothy to do no work must be successful. Remember all the hired hands and Aunt Em and and her uncle are working while Dorothy is bitching about a problem she largely brought on herself. Aunt Em is clearly distressed by her workload but doesn’t ask Dorothy to help, just merely stay out of her way, while she does everything > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Aunt Em has become, for Dorothy, the source of all her misery. How much better it would be, she thinks, how possible it would be for me to have a home, a real home, if Aunt Em were out of the picture and it were just Uncle Henry and me. We could have a happy home together. There’s no doubt here’s a strong Electra Complex going on here as well.) Huh? Dorothy loves Aunt Em and cries for her throughout the movie. The closest thing she comes to feeling negative about Aunt Em is when she says “I’ve been gone so long Aunt Em and Uncle Henry have probably stopped wondering where I am.” ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/37 "2009-01-13T15:22:14Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > **Eleanorigby** has made some insightful suggestions, but ultimately is a bit off. > > No, clearly what we have here is a breakdown if the virgin/mother/crone mythos brought on by rural isolation. Dorothy is the virgin on the cusp of womanhood, and miss Gulch is the crone. But dorothy’s own mother (deceased) and Aunt Em (childless) leave her with no role model for the mother. The ruby slippers represent not menstruation, but her virginity, she fears to ‘give it up’ because she fears she will transition directly from virgin to withered crone, do not pass go, do not collect 200 orgasms. > > Unfortunately, in addition to a lack of a mother figure, she is also isolated from any true masculinity and has only been exposed to weak, ambitionless hirelings and emasculated Uncle Henry. > > Driven mercilessly by her bodies demands, but with no direction in sight, she creates a fantasy destination where all will be resolved, however since no warrior/hunter archtype existed in Kansas, she will not find one over the rainbow and her journey will become one not just of self discovery, but self satisfaction as well, ‘you had the power all the time.’ > > Tapping her heels together (she did it a lot more than 3 times) is her discovery of masturbation which resolves the crisis and allows her to re-enter her normal world. the water and the WWW? Well, let’s just say that Dorothy was the first recorded female ejaculator in american fiction. And in this contribution we see the value of collegial discourse. I am grateful for the insights my esteemed colleague has shared and from them take fresh perspectives to my own practice and analyses. \ ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/38 "2009-01-13T16:15:01Z")
I think Alan Moore’s _Lost Girls_ should be required reading for this course, BTW. Also, where does Toto fit into all this? ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/39 "2009-01-13T16:31:15Z")
Toto symbolizes the playful innocence that Dorothy struggled so desperately to shelter and preserve, even while incinerating the huts of civilians in Chu Lai. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922/40 "2009-01-13T18:00:53Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > And in this contribution we see the value of collegial discourse. I am grateful for the insights my esteemed colleague has shared and from them take fresh perspectives to my own practice and analyses. \ Not at all, we’re a team. My only concern is the patients wellbeing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-psychoanalyze-the-hell-out-of-the-wizard-of-oz/480922.md?page=3)