Analysis Paralysis

by Mary O’Connell

Some may say that we’re endowed with rational free will.
Sigmund Freud refuted this, his theories haunt us still.
Starting with sex, one marvels at the beans he had to spill,
Oedipal neurosis was soon to fit the bill.

Eros and Thanatos are tearing us apart —
desire for love, a push towards death, even if we’re smart,
these drives are hard-wired into us from the very start,
so that we may be putting the whores before Descartes.

Have you been troubled by the monsters of the Id,
lurking in the shadows when you dare to lift the lid?
all those secret longings, forbidden things you did,
like pulling wings off flies when just a little kid?

The Super-ego wants the whole lot to be repressed,
The Ego asks what course of action would be best?
Confused, you make great efforts to get things off your chest,
the ‘shrink from hell’ may blackmail you with what you have confessed.

Internal psychic harmony will always have appeal,
but data lately verified by scientists can reveal
that neurons call the shots and our freedom is not real,
so how are we supposed to maintain an even keel?

The world itself is crazy, so which of us is sane?
Denial and projection are how we play the game.
Should we forget the ‘talking cure’, since pills can kill the pain?
Hours of analysis may end up down the drain.

The three pound mass of jelly that hides inside our head
is all we have to figure out our purpose, since we shed
the concept of a soul, and God, they say is dead,
which leaves our true identity just hanging by a thread.