Leo Stone’s “On the Principal Obscene Word of the English Language” (1954) embodies a particular moment in the history of psychoanalysis, one that stands in contrast to our current zeitgeist. In a review that is both admiring and critical, Stone’s paper is compared with a recent book by an OED editor on the same topic (Sheidlower 2009). The latter totally neglects Stone, and psychoanalysis in general, and speculations are made regarding this neglect.
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