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Who really said it

This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever

Not Sigmund Freud — an unsourced saying popularized by a film Sigmund Freud (misattributed) Traced in print to Anthony Burgess (1980); broadcast to a mass audience by the 2006 film The Departed
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

No text, letter, lecture or interview by Freud contains this line, and researchers who have gone looking — including Irish Times columnist Frank McNally — concluded he almost certainly never said it. The wording is a modern paraphrase; screenwriter William Monahan put a version of it in Matt Damon’s mouth in The Departed (2006), and the germ of the idea traces back to Anthony Burgess in 1980, who reported that an unnamed follower of Freud — not Freud himself — divided psychology into “Irish and non-Irish.”

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever” Misattributed to Sigmund Freud — no source in his works; a modern quip popularized by the film The Departed (2006).

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Sigmund Freud. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

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In context

Evoking the world of Sigmund Freud — Austrian neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis. Theme: "This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Popularly credited to
Sigmund Freud
Documented source
None — no work in Freud’s corpus
Popularized by
The Departed (2006), screenplay by William Monahan
Earliest kindred idea
Anthony Burgess, 1980 (attributing it to an unnamed Freud follower)

This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever.

The line circulates in several forms — often expanded to name the Irish (“The Irish are the one race for which psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever … because they already live in a dream world”). None of the variants has ever been traced to a Freud text.

The Irish Times: The Full Irish, Freud

The paper trail

  • The version quoted here is the bare wording widely reproduced on quote aggregators such as Goodreads, always credited to Freud but never with a citation.
  • In The Irish Times, Frank McNally searched for a source and concluded “much as we would love him to have done, he never said any such thing,” tracing the notion to Anthony Burgess in 1980.
  • IrishCentral discusses the quote via The Departed and gives no Freud citation, concluding its origin may never be known.
  • Snopes filed it under the flat headline “No Evidence Freud Made This Snark About the Irish.”

Because the line cannot be tied to any specific Freud work — and appears to be an anonymous modern paraphrase rather than a passage from a datable, identifiable text — no copyright status can honestly be asserted. The screenplay of The Departed (2006), which popularized one version, is itself in copyright, but the floating quotation predates and differs from it.

Fact-check

How it got pinned on Freud

This is a textbook “magnet” misattribution: a clever one-liner attached to psychoanalysis’s most famous name, repeated so often it became ‘common knowledge’ — yet no one can point to where Freud wrote or said it.

Sigmund Freud No source

No letter, lecture, case study or line in the 24-volume Standard Edition contains this remark. Writers who searched for it, including The Irish Times’ Frank McNally, came up empty and concluded he “never said any such thing.”

William Monahan / The Departed (2006) Paraphrase

The line that put the quip in front of millions is spoken by Matt Damon’s character in Scorsese’s film; it is a modern paraphrase of a saying already circulating, not a quotation from Freud, as IrishCentral notes.

An unnamed follower of Freud, via Anthony Burgess Second-hand

The oldest thread The Irish Times could find is Anthony Burgess in 1980, reporting that an unnamed disciple of Freud — not Freud — split psychology into “Irish and non-Irish.” That, McNally suggests, is where the idea took root.

Best evidence: an unsourced modern quip about the Irish, spread by a 2006 film, with no line in Freud’s actual writings to support it — per The Irish Times.

Context

Why the quote stuck

The remark flatters a cultural stereotype — the dreamy, story-loving, un-analyzable Irish — and hangs it on the one name guaranteed to lend it authority. That combination is exactly what makes a fabricated quotation durable: it feels right, it is quotable, and the ‘Freud’ tag discourages anyone from checking.

Its modern fame is traceable to a single scene in The Departed, after which the line spread across quote sites, opinion columns and psychotherapy blogs, each borrowing the last one’s authority rather than a primary source.

“Much as we would love him to have done, he never said any such thing.”

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Character Truth

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

No Evidence Freud Made This Snark About the Irishsnopes.com

Fact-check whose headline states there is no evidence Freud said this.
The Full Irish, Freudirishtimes.com

Frank McNally traces the idea to Anthony Burgess (1980) and concludes Freud never said it.
Was Freud right? Is psychoanalysis of no use to the Irish?irishcentral.com

Reports the quote reached a mass audience via The Departed with no Freud citation.
Sigmund Freud on the Irishsheilaomalley.com

Blog discussion of the quote's popular attribution to Freud and Irish reader reactions.
Freud quote page (unsourced attribution)goodreads.com

Example of the exact wording circulated as Freud's with no source.

Popularly credited author

The man it’s pinned on

Sigmund Freud

1856–1939 · Austrian neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis and reshaped how the twentieth century thought about the mind, dreams and the unconscious. His vast published output — the Standard Edition runs to 24 volumes — is heavily catalogued and searchable, which is precisely why the absence of any Freudian source for this quip is so telling. No serious Freud scholar or collected-works index records him making this remark about the Irish or anyone else.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Best available

No primary source located. Earliest documented discussion of the idea: Anthony Burgess (1980), reported in Frank McNally, “The Full Irish, Freud,” The Irish Times, 2014. Popular modern wording: William Monahan, screenplay, The Departed (Warner Bros., 2006).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/this-is-one-race-of-people-for-whom-psychoanalysis-is-of-no

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