CBA Record July-August 2020

CBA RECORD

D ealing with Covid-19 has unleashed feelings of anxiety and despair. So I thought I would interview the most famous psychiatrist of all time for advice, Dr. Sigmund Freud. We met in a dream, naturally. He was reclining on a dilapidated Victorian-era sofa that reeked of stale cigar smoke. I sat six feet away, wearing an N95 mask. I took down Freud’s exact words (which he actually said during his lifetime). Hyman: You lived through what has been called the Spanish Flu. Freud: The restrictions were bad for us, the uncertainties were great, clinical practice was of course low. Hyman: Your daughter, Sophie, contracted the virus and died. Freud: Our sweet Sophie in Hamburg had been snatched away by influenzal pneumonia, snatched away in the midst of glowing health, from a full and active life as a competent mother and loving wife, all in four or five days, as though she had never existed. A meaningless, brutal act of fate. A joke played on helpless, poor humans by higher forces. Hyman: How did you cope? Freud: We knew that the acute sorrow we feel after such a loss will run its course, but also that we will remain inconsolable, and will never find a substitute. No matter what may come to take its place, even should it fill that place completely, it remains something else. And that is how it should be. It is the only way of perpetuating a love that we do not want to abandon. Hyman: What guidance can you offer us today? Freud: The principal task of civilization is to defend us against nature. Hyman: So far, nature is winning. Freud: Three things are impossible to fulfill completely: healing, educating, governing. Hyman: Maybe impossible, but necessary if we are to beat back this pandemic. Freud: It is only by the influence of individuals who can set an example, whom the masses recog- nize as their leaders, that they can be induced to submit to the labors and renunciations on which the existence of culture depends. Hyman: There’s been lots of controversy about Washington’s response to Covid-19. Freud: Fools, visionaries, sufferers from delusions, neurotics, and lunatics have played great roles at all times in the history of humankind, and not merely when the accident of birth had bequeathed them sovereignty. Usually, they have wreaked havoc. Hyman: I’m optimistic things will get better. Freud: Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength. One day, in retrospect, this struggle will strike you as the most beautiful. Hyman: Ah, thank you. A half-smile of anticipation appeared on Dr. Freud’s face. He asked if he could smoke the cigar he’d been chewing. Hyman: This is a no-smoking dream. Keep chewing. Freud: Maturity is the ability to postpone gratification. Hyman: Tell us, what is the meaning of life? Freud: At that moment when a person starts to seriously ponder the meaning and value of life, you can consider him a madman. Hyman: Sorry I asked. Freud: My boy, being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise. Hyman: Final question. People are feeling depressed. Thoughts? Freud: Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure you are not, in fact, surrounded by a-holes. With that I awoke to the smell of a freshly lit cigar. BY JUSTICE MICHAEL B. HYMAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Dreaming of Dr. Sigmund Freud EDITOR’S BRIEFCASE

EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Justice Michael B. Hyman Illinois Appellate Court

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Anne Ellis Proactive Worldwide, Inc.

SUMMARY JUDGMENTS EDITOR Daniel A. Cotter Howard and Howard Attorneys PLLC

YLS JOURNAL EDITORS Kruti Patel Wintersteen Law Group Alexander Passo Latimer LeVay Fyock LLC Kaitlin King Hart David Carson LLP

Carolyn Amadon Samuel, Son & Co. Daniel J. Berkowitz Illinois Attorney General’s Of fi ce Amy Cook The Farmer Chef Alliance Nina Fain Janet Sugerman Schirn Family Trust Anthony F. Fata Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel LLP Clifford Gately Hinshaw & Culbertson Jasmine Villaflor Hernandez Cook County State’s Attorney’s Of fi ce Lynn Semptimphelter Kopon Kopon Airdo LLC John Levin Kathryn C. Liss DePaul University College of Law Bonnie McGrath Law Of fi ce of Bonnie McGrath Clare McMahon Law Of fi ce of Clare McMahon Pamela S. Menaker Clifford Law Of fi ces Peter V. Mierzwa Law Bulletin Media Kathleen Dillon Narko Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Adam J. Sheppard Sheppard Law Firm, PC Richard Lee Stavins

Robbins, Saloman & Patt, Ltd. Rosemary Simota Thompson Judge E. Kenneth Wright, Jr. Circuit Court of Cook County

THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION Sharon Nolan Director of Marketing

4 July/August 2020