Topsy: The Story of a Golden-Haired ChowTopsy is a psychoanalytic tale of the effects of a dog on its owner; the analyst is thegreat Marie Bonaparte. Only after being told that her dog had cancer did she realie theattachment she developed to Topsy. She describes the emotions she experienced during the time ofTopsy's illness and subsequent healing. Written in France and Greece at the onset of World WarII, the story of Topsy's cancer clearly is intended to convey the ills of Europe at that time. Bonaparte's relationship with her dog reveals her own fearsabout aging, dying, being alone, as well as the uncertainty of the political situation. As shetells her story, Bonaparte is reminded of the experience of her father, who also suffered fromcancer. Topsy, while not written as a scientific study, provides insight into thepsychoanalytical effects of relationships between humans and animals. It tells us much about oneof psychotherapy's founding personages as well as the members of her professional circle in acritical period of European history. In the newintroduction, Gary Genosko reflects on Sigmund Freud's own affection for, and use of, dogs inhis analyses. He goes on to describe the relationship between Freud and Bonaparte and how dogsplayed a significant part in that companionship. Topsy will be of interest to psychologists,psychiatrists, and those who love, and have been loved by dogs. Marie Bonaparte(1882-1962) was a renowned French psychoanalyst whose best-known book was APsychoanalytic Study of Edgar Allen Poe. She also translated many of Freud'sbooks into French. GaryGenosko is a researcher affiliated with the McLuhan Program in Culture andTechnology at the University of Toronto in Canada, and the department of Sociology, Goldsmith'sCollege, University of London, England. |
Contents
| 1 | |
PROLOGUE IN DOGLAND | 35 |
THE SENTENCE | 43 |
POOR TOPSY | 47 |
IMPLORATIONS TO THE GOD OF THE RAYS | 51 |
TOPSY BENEATH THE MAGICAL RAYS | 55 |
TOPSY AND I IN THE GARDEN | 59 |
TOPSY MY TERRESTRIAL SISTER | 63 |
SOFT HOPE OF SUMMER | 105 |
BEFORE LEAVING FOR THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS | 109 |
SUMMER WISDOM | 113 |
AUTUMN HOMECOMING | 117 |
TOPSY BY THE SEA | 123 |
TOPSYS WHITENED HEAD | 127 |
TOPSY AND THE OTHER WORLDS | 133 |
RESPITE FROM THINGS HUMAN | 139 |
CHILDLESS TOPSY | 67 |
OUR ANCESTORS AND OUR DESCENDANTS | 71 |
MAGICAL DOG | 75 |
TOPSYS HEART | 79 |
TOPSYS EMACIATED BODY | 85 |
LETHAL LULLABY | 89 |
SEPULCHRAL MEDITATION | 95 |
DREAMS OF PARADISE | 101 |
ANIMAL SIMPLICITY | 143 |
A SPRING NIGHT IN THE GARDEN | 147 |
TOPSY AND SHAKESPEARE | |
ON THE FRONTIERS OF THE SPECIES | |
REVOLUTIONARY JUNE | |
TALISMAN OF LIFE | |
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Common terms and phrases
233 Saturday Alsatian ambivalent analysand analysis Animal phobias Anna Anna Freud Barbara Guest Bertin big garden birds body Bonaparte's Boria Sax bread and leisure Bryher cancer canine cats child chow-chow Cloud cured daisies daughter death Deutsch dog story dog's DOGLAND door dream earth Ernest Jones eternal eyes false pregnancy father fear flowers Freud and Bonaparte Freud's dog garden of St Gary Genosko golden Golden-Haired Chow grass growing old hair heal heart Hippomenes human Ibid illness James Strachey Janet Malcolm Jofi Jofi's John Rodker leaves little dog lives London Lün Marie Bonaparte Martin Freud meal Mimau Molnar morning night olfaction Paris Paul Roazen paws phobias Princess psychoanalytic bestiary race Rachel Blau DuPlessis Reiser right to love shtetl Sigmund Freud sleep sometimes spite spring summer swelling Tatoun Topsy runs Topsy's lip Topsy's whitened Toronto Totem Trans treatment trees tumour Wolf Wolf-Man wolves woods