Eric Kandel Quotes

I read Freud's Introductory Lectures in Psychoanalysis in basically one sitting. I decided to enroll in medical school. It was almost like a conversion experience.

Early in my career, I was disappointed that psychoanalysis was not becoming more empirical, was not becoming more scientific. It was primarily concerned with individual patients. It wasn't trying to collect data from large groups of people who have been analyzed.

My mom being a psychotherapist, I've been brought up with that whole psychoanalytical terrain.

There were some great clinicians in the 20th century - great men. Freud was a genius; Jung was a genius, Carl Rogers was a genius - there's a half-dozen psychologists of the 1950s and humanists of the 1960s.

Sometimes it's said that psychiatrists are doctors who are frightened by the sight of blood. I might have fallen into that category.

When I'm saying hysteria, I'm referring to Freud, because all the women were coming to him with symptoms and seeking help, and he just called it hysteria.

My wife was a licensed psychologist by profession and a college professor of psychology.

Sigmund Freud was the apostle of disbelief. He was the one who made psychoanalysis a part of our culture, and in so doing he kicked out a flying buttress that had been essential for holding up our cathedral of faith.

After doing psychology for half a century, my passion for all of it is greater than ever.

Between the ages of 24 and 27, I read Freud's complete works, everything that had been translated into English. It was very stimulating intellectually. But I did not accept his view of neurosis or of human nature.

I'm not a psychiatrist. I'm not treating patients.

It used to be that whenever I introduced myself to people and told them I was a psychologist, they would shrink away from me. Because, quite rightly, the impression the American public has of psychologists is, 'You want to know what's wrong with me.'

I'm getting my psychology degree with a focus on marriage and family therapy.

My grandmother was a psychiatrist and had shelves full of medical books - I was constantly sneaking looks at some of those. I was fascinated by the descriptions of illnesses and diseases.

If I had a whole other life, I'd be a psychiatrist.

I know it's fashionable to blame your childhood for everything nowadays - thank you, Freud. The thing is, though, I really don't feel scarred by mine. But perhaps if I'd been in therapy for 10 years, and you were able to read the records, you'd disagree.

In London, it's quite a rarefied activity to be on an analyst's couch.

I have studied Freud and that kind of thing. I just never thought I would need it.

My mom's a psychologist, and so is my grandfather.

My grandad, he has his doctorate in psychology.

I am a psychologist. That's my training.

I have therapy. Every day. I read a bit of Freud; I try to be a better person. Every day.

I am a Professor of Psychology at Palo Alto University and a Research Psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

In truth, Freud sees nothing and understands nothing.

To anybody who says to me, 'I'm in character,' I say, 'You should be in an asylum.' If you don't know that you're pretending, then you should really seek medical help. I don't have patience for that stuff.