Product Description

Sarah Boxer’s charming first book is a series of cartoon case histories, an animal tour of all things Freudian. The tale begins when Mr. Bunnyman runs into Dr. Floyd’s office to hide from a wolf that is chasing him, and Floyd, a classic pipe-smoking analyst, insists that Bunnyman’s problem is psychological—that he is not actually being chased but is having paranoid fantasies. Enter Dr. Floyd’s next patient, Mr. Wolfman, a swaggering cross-dresser with a hysterical female alter ego called Lambskin (who soon insists on being treated by Floyd, too). Ratma’am rounds out the Floydian client list: she’s an obsessive-compulsive pack rat who likes giving orders and being spanked.

Drawn with a whimsical hand and complete with notes about the Freudian sources to which these archives pay affectionate tribute, the adventures of these animals reveal both the unintended comedy of Freud’s case histories and their psychic depths.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #588912 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-24
• Released on: 2001-07-24
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 7.99" h x .55" w x 5.48" l, .63 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Remember when dogs were not allowed on the furniture? Well, here a near-menagerie ends up on the couch with hilarious results that also lead to some sharp insights into human behavior. Part critical gloss on actual Freudian case histories, part postmodern humor and partly a very funny and silly series of cartoon strips (drawn by the author) of a week by week psychoanalysis of multiple characters, the book ends up as an oddly moving graphic account of the nature of human obsession, fear, longing, rage and terror. Mr. Bunnyman comes to Dr. Floyd because he is being chased by a wolf. The strictly Freudian doc understands that this is a paranoid fantasy, but has no problem devoting a separate 50 minutes to the Wolf, because the Wolfman has an alter ego, Lambskin, who wants attention as well. Before you know it, the obsessive-compulsive Ratma'am also joins the zoological roster of clients. Boxer supplies extensive footnotes from and about Freud's work to explicate her ideas, but anyone familiar with basic psychoanalytic theory will have already spotted Little Hans, the Wolf Man, Dora and the Rat Man. Boxer's conceit is both audacious and clever, and always transcends the sophomoric giddiness it exudes at first glance. She poignantly conveys Wolf Man's anxiety about his father's relationship to him when he is dressed in/as Lambskin, even as she animates Freud's castration theory. Boxer's knowledge of Freudian thought, as well as her charming and quirkily resonant images and ideas makes this an idiosyncratic book that could easily become a cult classic and a useful teaching tool.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
“The ingenious Sarah Boxer has charmingly—and with great
fun—assembled a furred and feathered repertory company,
and has provided them with comic scenes that will keep you
eavesdropping on their analytic sessions for many seasons.”
—Edward Koren

“As the story unfolded, it got funnier and funnier, and funnier,
and funnier. Suddenly it was very painful.”
—David Levine

From the Back Cover
“The ingenious Sarah Boxer has charmingly—and with great
fun—assembled a furred and feathered repertory company,
and has provided them with comic scenes that will keep you
eavesdropping on their analytic sessions for many seasons.”
—Edward Koren

“As the story unfolded, it got funnier and funnier, and funnier,
and funnier. Suddenly it was very painful.”
—David Levine