Detecting the Differences and Similarities Between Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud

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PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

With all the wondrous benefits of Zoom communication during the COVID-19 pandemic, what seemed missing is the ability to see and interpret all the nonverbal communication—voice tone, body movements, dress, smell, and more—which actually provides the bulk of human interactive communication. As my clinical experience over the years accumulated, I ended up telling my wife that I could usually tell how my patient was doing at the start of a session by the tone of their voice.

Perhaps that has gone relatively unnoticed by most of us. Moreover, nonverbal communication never seemed like a prominent focus of education for psychiatrists. Instead, the focus seems to have most always been on what is going on in our minds, not in our behavior.

Where behavior is of prime communication importance and attention seems to be in mystery novels, plays, and real-life detectives and spies. The famous fictional detective, who often seems real, is Sherlock Holmes, who solves mysteries by analyzing smells, inches, and a variety of other nonverbal behavior.

The author of the original Sherlock Holmes series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, wrote his popular stories around the turn of the 20th century, not long before Freud devoted his psychoanalytic theories of the mind in the early 1900s, focusing on our internal minds instead of external behavior, though each source of information could influence the other.

So, when my wife and I saw a new play last week at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake titled “Sherlock Holmes and The Mystery of the Human Heart,” it turned out to be another lesson in careful assessment of nonverbal clues. It even stimulated recall of a clinical memory where I was provided a rare nonverbal educational lesson during medical school. I was beginning an interview with one of my first psychiatric patients, a young adolescent girl with suicidal ideation, when my supervisor entered the room unannounced, looked at her, and exclaimed: “Are you . . . or For Whom the Bell Tolls?” Startled, she immediately sat up from her slouched posture and gradually felt less suicidal.

The recent play and my memory got me wondering whether Freud knew of the Sherlock Holmes novels and whether they influenced him, as well as possibly the other direction, whether Freud had influence on mystery novels. Serendipitously, on that same day of wondering, I saw the interview of Dennis Palumbo by Vincenzo di Nicola in Psychiatric Times. I have come to know Dennis, too, and fascinated by how his career as a psychotherapist in Los Angeles intertwines with his writing of novels with a psychotherapist detective.

That led me to my own little detective search about any connections between Sherlock Holmes and Freud. Very little was discovered, although there is a very brief book on the topic.¹ Even so, I wonder if we do need some infusion of the external Sherlock Holmes perspective to supplement our focus on the inner mind. After all, research suggests it plays a major role in communication, sometimes subliminally.² Perhaps that would even enhance our understanding of the “. . . the Mystery of the Human Heart.”

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.

References

1. Shepheard M. Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Dr. Freud. Routledge; 1985.

2. Mehrabian A. Influence of attitudes from nonverbal communication in 2 channels. J Consulting Psychology. 1967;31(3):249-252.