Freud's Part in the Kelly Business
Summary
Behind Lord Hutton's high-backed chair in court Number 76 there was a spectral presence: a doctor with a kindly face and a silvery beard. Sigmund Freud believed that our behaviour is influenced by the subconscious, the level of mind through which material passes on the way to full consciousness. Lord Hutton evoked his spirit when he said that the Prime Minister's need for a powerful dossier might have "subconsciously influenced members of the Joint Intelligence Committee to make the wording of the dossier somewhat stronger".
This follows the Freudian slip Tony Blair himself made recently when, on a visit to Iraq, he referred to weapons of mass distraction. It seems the work of the Viennese neurologist with the kindly face and the silvery beard had a bearing on almost every stage of the Kelly Affair, what with the BBC's Labour-supporting chairman and director-general both subconsciously wanting to assert their independence from the Government. And consider Alastair Campbell's quixotic behaviour. I have a theory, based on no research whatsoever, that if Freud rummaged down through the layers of Mr Campbell's psyche he would find a man wrestling furiously with his id, the primitive, roiling, animalistic side of his personality.See the full content of this document
Extract
Freud's Part in the Kelly Business
Campbell's ego - with a little help from the pin which he kept in the palm of his hand to prick himself with and thereby control his anger - could usually restrain this ...
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