Doctor Lecher

Freud the orator

Taking into account a man's limited sexual prowess - after all, while a woman can have sex with many men without the need for much rest, as many prostitutes do - unfortunately for the strong sex, a man's sexual capacity, is limited to a few, at best, intercourses a day.

So, how was Freud able to service more than a couple of women a day, especially since, over time, due to his constant use and abuse of cocaine, becoming impotent? The answer is obvious, with agile fingers and with a no less nimble tongue, Freud could serve an unlimited number of women. 

Did Freud, the great thinker, really stoop so low that he provided hysterical women with sexual satisfaction using his mouth? In the dream book, Freud himself provided a clear clue about what his sexual practice entailed. The clue is contained in an alleged dream.
This is how Freud explained the content of the dream:
I see … a new volume … entitled "Famous Orators" (or Orations) [which] bears the name of Dr. Lecher.  … a few days ago I undertook the psychological treatment of some new patients, and am now forced to talk for ten to twelve hours a day. Thus I myself am a long-winded speaker. (1)

So, Freud was the long-winded speaker! And why does he mention the number of patients who he is forced to talk to for many hours?  As anyone knows, during an analytic session, it is the patient who talks and the psychoanalyst who listens. Not so, in Freud's case. Why is that?

As so often, Freud was talking in symbols, hiding the real meaning of what he wanted to convey behind the flowery language. So what is Freud saying? And, can it be said any clearer, if you are Freud? 

In Freud's symbolic language, a volume (or a book), according to his lunatic dream lexicon, stands for a woman. The most famous of the Famous Orators, during his lifetime, in his imagination, was the megalomaniac Freud himself. The new volume bears the name of Dr. Lecher, thus identifying the author as a doctor of medicine - like Freud - while the name Lecher alludes to the fact that he is, like Freud, a man who shows an excessive or disgusting interest in sex, a man that deserved the name, a dirty lecher  (2)

 Without a doubt, this is how Freud perceived himself, and this is how he was perceived by his contemporaries.

The origin of the word lecher, in use since the 13th century, reveals what Freud hinted at. Its meaning comes from lecher to lick, live in debauchery ...  akin to Old High German leckōn to lick. (3) No doubt, this was the meaning of the word Freud intended to reveal.

The book’s alternative name, Orations, provided by Freud, clearly, in Freudian newspeak, alludes to oral intercourse. Freud complained that he had to talk and, thus, perform oral intercourse, up to twelve female hours a day, which is hard work, as a matter of fact, a lot of hard work.

And he ends up his confession with a confirmation that it is he who is the long-winded speaker. So, you object that the whole discussion is all circumstantial without any hard proof? But, what do you think? Would Freud be that stupid, as to shame himself by openly revealing how he was earning his daily bread?

Notably, as always when he lies, Freud doesn’t provide any reference to Dr. Lecher’s book in the bibliography, which without a doubt was only Freud's figment of imagination.

The Book-lovers’ Collection

The alleged dream appeared in a somewhat different form in different issues of the dream book, which only confirms the idea that this was not a real dream but a bizarre concoction of Freud's sick imagination that needed some facelift from time to time.  The first English edition of the dream book was published in the U.S. in 1913, it's Abraham A. Brill's translation based on the original German edition of The Interpretation of Dreams (1900).

The significant change between the dream's content in the first and the third version is the fact that while in the first version, Freud talks about seeing in the dream a new volume of a collector series that he is in the habit of buying, in the third version, more brazenly he talks about, the Book-lovers’ Collection - the Collection which I am in the habit of buying. (4) Is the difference significant? It is, but only if you keep in mind that in Freud's symbolic language, a "book" stands for a woman, as if it is so, what Freud is referring to, the Women-lovers' collection, thus the collection of prostitutes whose services he was buying.

Notably, the reference to the Book-lovers’ Collection, disappeared in the 1931 edition of the dream book (5), never to return, the dream going back to the version in the original edition of 1913. Was there something untoward in the reference to book lovers, and if not, why else would the expression have been removed?

No oral references

Another significant change appeared in the Standard Edition of Freud's works. The translator and editor. James Strachey, who knew perfectly well what Freud's cures were about, removed the oral references, which, as it appears, were too obvious for his refined taste. Thus, the reference to Famous Orators (or Orations) was fittingly replaced with much more tasteful 'Famous Speakers' or 'Speeches', (6) which only confirms the idea that the oral references revealed Freud's preferred method of getting and giving sexual satisfaction.

I listen and I lick

So, did Freud service also his, in the first place, female (but not only) patients, by providing them with oral sex? There’s clear proof of the Freudian oral cure in the letter of, July 25, 1921, to his nephew, Samuel, living in England.  As one of his biographers, who had access to the letter recounted, in the letter, Freud wrote, "I listen and” . . . Freud's next word …. looks at first like "lick." (7) But of course. If it looks like lick, then it is lick.

There’s no doubt that Freud’s mouth and tongue were kept very busy licking the paying patient's vulvae for up to twelve hours. No wonder he hated his female neurotic patients reclining on the couch, only waiting to be serviced. Possibly, when it was time for his dinner, Freud's mouth and tongue were worn out after servicing that many women.

A common cure

This kind of sexual service was a common cure for hysteria practised by the doctors of that period, although maybe not always including tasting the ladies’ vulvae.
As it was pointed out, doctors inherited the task of producing orgasm in women because it was a job nobody else wanted. It was, indeed, hard work! Most importantly for Freud's business idea, hysterical women represented a large and lucrative market for physicians. (8) In the end, it is always about money!

That Freud turned to pleasuring women is not surprising, taking into account that all the other curative methods Freud had tried failed miserably. Initially, Freud relied on such … methods of treatment as hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, massage and the Weir-Mitchell rest-cure. But when these proved unsatisfactory his thoughts [and head] turned elsewhere. (9)

Where did Freud turn elsewhere, if not to the lower regions of the female anatomy, In those regions, Freud had a resounding success. So, this was what the couch was for.

(1) Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams, (1913, p. 167). First English edition.
(2) Britannica: Lecher, https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/lecher, 20.01.2025.
(3) Merriam-Webster: Lecher, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lecher, 20.01.2025.

(4) Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams, [(1919) 1913, pp. 227-228)]. Third English edition.
(5) Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams, (1931, p. 115).
(6) SE, p. 268-269.

(7) Cohen, David, The Escape of Sigmund Freud, (2010, p. 68).
(8) Maines, Rachel P, The technology of orgasm: "hysteria," the vibrator, and women's sexual satisfaction, (2001, p. 4).

(9) Freud, Sigmund, SE 2, p. XI. Editor's note.)