Sigmund Freud whose full names are Sigismund Schlomo Freud was a doctor and a neurologist in the nineteenth and twentieth century (Freud 12). Sigmund Freud is the father of psychoanalysis and was popular for his contribution in the concept of consciousness (Freud 12).
Because of his ideas, Freud developed a theory explaining why people experience dreams. Sigmund Freud used to smoke cigars; he loved cigars that he even smoked them during his working hours. Sometime, his patients said that the aroma of his cigar acted as a therapy.
To Freud, a cigar had a symbolic meaning, and he even said that there was a relationship or a connection between cigars, power, and success in life (Freud 54). Because of his love for cigar, he smoked them for over 50 years until he died at the age of 79 (Freud 16). During the time he was a psychiatrist, Sigmund would say many things to his patients, especially those that were in his dreams (Freud 76).
Everything that Sigmund said came down to have a sexual meaning (Freud 76). In his view, cigarettes could be marketed to women as a representation of empowerment. One day when he was smoking a cigar, one student asked him what that cigar symbolized.
In his answer, Freud said, “sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar” (Freud 18). Now the question is what did Sigmund mean by this phrase? Freud said this phrase to mean that sometimes even though some things appear to have complex meaning, the answer may not be so deep; it may jut be the absolute answer.
For a long time, Freud’s work emphasized much on the notion of subconscious and how it works to send information to the consciousness (Freud 67). This concept has been outlined in his theory. In his work, Freud said that people think about things, which are repressed and are always in the subconscious.
He further argued that those things that stay out of the consciousness always come in the form of dreams. Freud mostly used examples where a cigar signified a penis (Freud 12).
Freud used to say that a penis (male sexual organ) is a picture that is strong in mind, but this image is hidden in subconscious in the form of something else (Freud 34). This whole concept would therefore mean that some things are kept in the subconscious while others are kept in the conscious side.
In a number of cases, Freud would say one thing that represented something else. People who were close and interacted regularly with Sigmund understood that he would say one thing to refer or signify another thing.
However, when a student asked Sigmund what a cigar signified when he was smoking as usual, he replied by saying “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”. In simple terms, Sigmund meant that not all the time people say things that have a complex meaning (Freud 122).
In conclusion, some times people say or do things that have just a simple meaning. In many cases, people tend to see simple things and interpret them in a complex way when in a reality the answer is just the obvious. In deed, “sometime a cigar is just a cigar.” As such, when we are trying to figure out something and look for a deeper meaning, sometimes the answer can be the obvious one.
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. Interpretation of Dreams. Pittsburg: NuVision Publications, LLC, 2007. Print.