R IS SOMETIMES HOT, SOMETIMES COLD

 "I was impressed with how kindly Freud could be, though I knew he was also a great hater; they are not really incompatible traits." 

- Henry A. Murray about Freud

"Most of humanity is, according to my experiences, rabble." 
- Sigmund Freud

Freud, once more with white hair and beard, seemed at a loss at what to make of both Twain and myself.

I didn't blame him.  I lived each second with me, and I felt much the same.

"You don't have to finish this Free Association of the alphabet, sir."

"I finish what I begin, young man."

I sighed.  

I remembered reading that Freud's heroic effort at self-mastery in the service of concentrated work made him chain himself to a rigid timetable.

He sighed, "R is the letter now.  What occurs to you?"

I saw Freud's glare towards Mark and said, "Revenge."

Mark had seen the glare and snorted, 

“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”

Freud said, "So even you do not approve of revenge?"

"Approve?  Why, Saw-Brains, revenge is wicked, and unchristian and in every way unbecoming.   

 I am not the man to countenance it or show it any favor."

He laughed belly-deep.  "But it is powerful sweet, anyway."

Freud sneered, "Really?"

Mark nodded.

"There is more real pleasure to be gotten out of a malicious act, where your heart is in it, than out of thirty acts of a nobler sort."

Freud said thoughtfully, 

"You lost your father quite young, did you not?  The loss of a parental figure often sows the seeds for fear of abandonment 

with the cruel fear of becoming close to another -- ideal breeding grounds for all sorts of negative comments."

I saw Mark flinch, and I caught Freud's eye.  

"Yep, I can see you believe in revenge, too."

I turned to Mark, nodded to Freud, and said, 

"Clay feet will trip you up every time."

Mark smiled gently and turned to Freud.  

"You can quote the boy on that, too, Saw-Brains."