James (Jim) Davis Nov 29, 2013:

Noblest in the world! I certainly wouldn't go that far Barbara, we have lots of sins in our history to answer for (trying to kill George Washington for one). However, my father who fought in the war (alongside many Americans) used to say, "The Americans have big wallets, but their hearts are bigger than their wallets."

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Nov 29, 2013:

The English Saved Children From The Nazis, Too Several years ago, on our local public broadcasting station, I saw a documentary about how many of the English, specifically many who had homes in the country, opened their homes to sometimes more than a score of young Jewish children so they could, hopefully, be saved from the Nazi regime.

I may be American, but as far as I'm concerned, the English are the noblest people in the world, as also is evidenced by my English aunt from Bristol, who came over to the States as my uncle's war bride. Anyway, she's not into Freud, but she's one of the kindest, most loving persons I have ever known. I'm so happy she survived the nightmare that was the Bleitzkrieg (Sp?).

Tom in London Nov 29, 2013:

Yep Large numbers of German Jews were saved by managing to escape to the UK. A few of them were famous, like Walter Gropius and the Freuds, but most of them were not.

James (Jim) Davis Nov 29, 2013:

Freud "What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now, they are content with burning my books." And of course although not a practising believer, he was Jewish. I'd say he was doomed "in relation to the Nazi agenda" if he hadn't got out.

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Nov 29, 2013:

Wonderful Link, Tom in London! I'm sorry I did not go there when I was travelling around England in 2010.

I hope there's going to be a next time!

Tom in London Nov 29, 2013:

Maresfield Gardens is the name of the street. Freud's house there is now the Freud Museum. http://www.freud.org.uk

James (Jim) Davis Nov 29, 2013:

Now Laing!! Yes with his use of Bateson's double bind, which although brilliant, turned out to have nothing to do with the cause of schizophrenia.

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Nov 29, 2013:

Maresfield, Outside of London, Tom? I know that Maresfield is where Freud spent his last days, after the Nazi SS made it clear, while they were interrogating his wife and daughter, Anna, a famous psychoanalyst in her own right, that they considered them suspect in relation to the Nazi agenda. I have seen a photograph of Anna and her mother, Martha Bernays Freud, that was taken immediately after the interrogation. The terror they felt is obvious-it can be read on their faces. I'm not surprised the Freuds fled to England after that.

James (Jim) Davis Nov 29, 2013:

You must know the story of the English translation of Freud, which turned a warm colourful literary text into a dry cold medical text and manage to translate triebe which apparently means drive as instinct with all its hereditary nature rather than nurture overtones that are absent in the German.

Tom in London Nov 29, 2013:

Ah! The soul! Many people used to believe that the "seat" of the soul was somewhere in the brain. Since brains began to be opened up frequently, no one has seen "the soul". As a result of this and like revelations, many people do not now believe in the soul.
- R. D. Laing “The Politics of Experience”

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Nov 29, 2013:

Martyred Rats I was kind of turned off of psychology per se, as opposed to psychoanalysis, when I saw a rat cut open, from its crotch up to its head, lying on a board in a psychology lab, at Bowling Green State University, when I was there attending seminars for high school psychology teachers...

Tom in London Nov 29, 2013:

I wonder if this helps? Freud's London home is about 5 minutes from where I live. I'm sure something has rubbed off :)

James (Jim) Davis Nov 29, 2013:

Then you know what you are doing, sorry. I was much more interested in playing with decibels, jnds, problem solving, perception and paradoxes and the neocortex and the frontal lobes, although I didn't play with rats and thought intelligence tests were a waste of time.

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Nov 29, 2013:

Well, Actually... Although I have studied psychology, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, my point of view, in relation to the same, I admit, is less scientific and more artistic (psychoanalytic), which doesn't make it all that surprising that I would look at the passage in that kind of way, also in view of the fact that I undertook literary analysis during my undergraduate years, from the psychoanalytic point of view, as a Spanish and French literature student. After carrying out all those studies, including psychology, I have actually gravitated towards psychoanlalysis,, and have literally read hundreds of books in that area that deal with both theory and case studies.

James (Jim) Davis Nov 29, 2013:

You have two pages!! (is it psychotherapy?) and you give us two lines ;-). I studied experimental psychology which is all about observing empirical behaviour. British and American experimental behaviourist psychologists were not impressed at all with Freud's theories and his "explanations", nor were they impressed by his clincal assessments based on word association and dreams. They didn't measure anything (of course Freud wasn't impressed with experiments, couldn't see the point).
However, this interpretation of mine based on two lines could be diametrically the wrong way round.
Of course I am green with envy :-) , but financial translations pay too well.

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Nov 29, 2013:

Thank You For Your Questions, Jim ...in helping me to reach the most accurate conclusion.

Unfortunately, I can't answer them because, at this point, I only have a two-page excerpt of the whole work.

But I think this passage is more literary than scientific, at this point anyway, because of the use of the word "occhiali", in two places no less. In any event, Tom in London does makesa valid point about the wordplay, which is an appropriate way to look at it, under literary circumstances.

James (Jim) Davis Nov 29, 2013:

Hi Barbara, more context PLEASE I have a degree in psychology and these few lines bring to mind very many scientific questions. Psychology is very close to literature. The big difference is that one is (or tries to be) a precise science and the other is art, so it is important to be pinpoint accurate and literary at the same time (i.e achieve the impossible).
Is this text Freudian, or cognitive-behaviourist? Does it mention personality tests. Does it touch on mathematics and numbers or is it into theories and metaphors?

Tom in London Nov 29, 2013:

But... ...you'll lose the wordplay between "valutazioni" and "valore".

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Nov 29, 2013:

Appraisals I am thinking that I should be more literary (since that it the tone of the piece) and less scientific.

Therefore, I'm tending towards "appraisals" as a translation for "valutazioni.

Tom in London Nov 29, 2013:

Difficult because the wordplay in Italian is difficult to reproduce in English since "evaluations that fail to pick up on the value" isn't very good; "valutazione" actually means "assessment" more than "evaluation" and "value" means "value for money, i.e. cheap" more than intrinsic value. NEvertheless I have suggested it.