Today, I am thankful for those who maintain morale and a positive mindset that anything is possible.
By the early 1920s, the world had been introduced to the writings of an Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, who is regarded as the Father of Psychoanalysis. Freud contended that one’s deep inner ‘demons’ residing in our subconscious being were best confronted, and a person should fell empowerment to express one’s feelings in a more overt, conscious way. By addressing one’s inner ‘trauma’ head-on in an intellectual and emotional manner, a person can be freed of their ‘neurosis’ and debilitating guilt. He introduced us to our own trio of friends – the id, ego, and superego – that comprise our personality. He also taught us about the psychic energy that drives our mental thinking, which if fully liberated, could unleash emotional energy that can be directed in a more positive manner. Sigmund Freud passed away this week back in 1939 but not before leaving his mark on a society ready to burst out after the end of the Great War.
Positive ‘psyche’ was never on full display as it was in the Roaring Twenties of the 20th Century. As 1920 arrived, the United States was already actively implementing a new lease on life filled with positive morale and a ‘can do’ mindset. The word that probably best describes that decade comes from a French phrase. As American entered that new decade exactly a century ago, esprit de corps – the notion that any specific goal is achievable even in the face of strident opposition or ensuring hardship – had become part of common American vernacular.
So, with this, the Roaring Twenties became an era marked by enormous social change and a dramatic release of emotional energy. As national wealth ballooned, city life became commonplace, and as the youth broke away from their parent’s more conservative viewpoints, a mass cultural shift took place. Lavish parties took center stage as men and women exhibited a more carefree attitude towards sex and music, enough perhaps to even raise the eyebrows of Sigmund and a host of other psychologists. As the 19th Amendment gave suffrage irrespective of gender, women exhibited the energy to change the way they dressed, lived, and partied, giving rise to the ‘flapper’ mindset. Even as the 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacturing and sale of alcohol, many bucked the trend, choosing instead to ‘bootleg’ liquor at large parties in lieu of the local bar scene. The availability of relatively inexpensive automobiles, such as Ford’s Model T, gave Americans even more freedom to expand their reach, and the birth of Jazz, with its upbeat rhythm, gave the flappers and their male counterparts something fun to dance to.
Nobody exhibited this mindset more than an American author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and his loving wife and quintessential flapper, Zelda. Born on this day (Sept 24) in 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald eventually found himself on the East Coast, attending a Catholic prep school in Hackensack and college at Princeton University. Instead of focusing on his studies, Fitzgerald found his literary voice. He quit school, joined the army, and began writing. In due time, after the war ended, he wrote several successful novels, including The Romantic Egotist, This Side of Paradise, and Beautiful and the Damned. He met the daughter of an Arkansas Supreme Court justice, Zelda Sayre, and together the couple settled in New York City, where they lived an extravagant lifestyle filled with drinking, dancing, and other reveling. In essence, they became the embodiment of the Roaring Twenties movement. Eventually, Fitzgerald would pen a novel, entitled The Great Gatsby, which essentially summed up the era. Although the novel received lukewarm reviews upon its initial release, future generations would hold it up as one of the great, if not the greatest, American novels.
Sadly, the exuberance and opulence that characterized the Roaring Twenties came tumbling down with the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the ensuing Great Depression. As Zelda suffered mental illness, she became institutionalized and died in a hospital fire. F. Scott Fitzgerald also disappeared into mediocrity, if not obscurity, despite a stint as a screenwriter in Hollywood.
Yet, the esprit de corps that characterized the 1920s lived on. Even today, as we suffer through the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we look to brighter days where we might sing a song reminiscent of the Roaring Twenties:
Happy days are here again, The skies above are clear again. So, let's sing a song of cheer again, Happy days are here again.
Somewhere, Sigmund Freud must be smiling.
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