# Sigmund Freud about the Irish **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2006, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigmund-freud-about-the-irish/379487 "2006-11-07T23:47:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigmund-freud-about-the-irish/379487/1 "2006-11-07T23:47:20Z")
I saw Scorsese’s [The Departed](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/) today and in it is the following quote of Freud speaking about the Irish > [@](#): > > This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever My google-fu is weak it seems. I can only find people quoting the thing but no context or further info is given. Anybody got the Dope on this? Is it even real? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigmund-freud-about-the-irish/379487/2 "2006-11-08T00:02:43Z")
According to [this](http://users.rcn.com/brill/freudarc.html): > [@](#): > > most of Freud’s work remains under copyright No idea why or how, but it might limit your search somewhat. Speculatively I would attribute his attitude to contemporaneous British-inspired propaganda (and it’s not like he is likely to have experienced much of a decent sample on which to base his opinion - not that such considerations ever hampered the rest of his theorizing), but who knows? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigmund-freud-about-the-irish/379487/3 "2006-11-08T00:08:10Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] No idea why or how [/QUOTE] I don’t see why it’s all that surprising. He only died in 1939, so we’d still be within (for example) a 70-year copyright awarded to his estate. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigmund-freud-about-the-irish/379487/4 "2006-11-08T08:27:39Z")
I found [this](http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/000528.html) which found a reference in the introduction to a book of Irish short stories - intro written by Anthony Burgess. Part of the problem in searching may be that the original work the quote came from wasn’t written in English. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigmund-freud-about-the-irish/379487/5 "2006-11-08T13:16:03Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I don’t see why it’s all that surprising. He only died in 1939, so we’d still be within (for example) a 70-year copyright awarded to his estate. [/QUOTE] UK copyright. But in the U.S., all of his works published before 1923 are now in the public domain. ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigmund-freud-about-the-irish/379487/6 "2006-11-08T15:20:11Z")
Well a number of websites credit him with saying that ([1](http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/irish_quotes.html) [2](http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061023133806AAetSIZ) [3](http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:H8IHSvOrfygJ:www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/000528.html+freud+irish&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a) ). Take it for what it’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sigmund-freud-about-the-irish/379487/7 "2006-11-08T15:28:29Z")
Who needs psychoanalysis when you’ve got Guinness?