Siggi Freud and the SUV

Yesterday, in the Guardian, George Monbiot discussed what he believes to be trend towards extreme libertarianism in the UK. Monbiot exemplified this narrow individualism by referring to the antics of the automobile lobby and by quoting from Jeremy Clarkson.

Whatever the merits of Monbiot's argument the worth of his piece was the response it received from Guardian readers.

While Monbiot was happy to call anti-speed camera nuts and militant motorists as 'anti-social bastards', Liz Lloyd from Brighton had a better analysis...

"Good for George Monbiot on the devastating political impact of private car use. One other reason why the car is having such a corrosive effect on society is that, in psychoanalytic terms, the car driver is able to indulge the universal infantile fantasy of being centre of the universe - Freud's "His majesty the baby" - without the necessary disillusion of accepting the existence of others as people with their own needs and feelings. This self-centredness is evident in the car driver's "you can't mean me" response when faced with anything outside his own bubble.

Car driving, with its selfishness and aggressiveness is a terrible legacy of Margaret Thatcher's - on the analytic couch the car driver is a pathological narcissist who has not had to come to terms with the Oedipal "other".

Well, exactly....

[Pic above: Sigmund Freud sizing up whether he should go for the 5.2 litre V8 Humvee or the 5.0 litre Cherokee....]