Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Freud implies that not every action has a deep hidden meaning; sometimes things are literal.
- In plain terms
- Not everything has a secret meaning; a cigar can be just a cigar.
- What can you take from it?
- Avoid overanalyzing every action or object.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When should we stop looking for hidden meanings?
- Is everything symbolic?
Another view
It contradicts the core of Freudian theory which seeks hidden meanings.
More from Sigmund Freud
Sex is the mathematical urge repressed.
Permalink to quote #46 Such progress we have made! In the Middle Ages, they would have burned me as a witch, but now they are content to burn my book.
Permalink to quote #48 Sadism is all right in its place, but it should be directed to proper ends.
Permalink to quote #45
Related quotes
It may sound surprising when I say, on the basis of my own clinical practice as well as that of my psychological and psychiatric colleagues, that the chief pro…
Rollo MayRollo May quote #1 Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't m…
Jackson PollockJackson Pollock quote #1 Later, however, I came to recognize the objective nature of these dreams or fantasies ... Thus it was that I gradually came to acknowledge that such fantasies …
Wolfgang PauliWolfgang Pauli quote #2