Gore Vidal: In the Psychiatrists Chair - BBC Radio (October 2000)
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- First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2000.
Fastidious, unforgiving, disdainful, aphoristic, bellicose and wickedly compelling. Legendary American writer and critic Gore Vidal discusses his extraordinary life and career with Professor Anthony Clare. From October 2000.
Psychiatrist Dr Anthony Clare's in depth interviews with prominent people from different walks of life.
Born in Dublin, author Anthony Clare held a doctorate in medicine, a master's degree in philosophy and was a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. After becoming a regular on BBC Radio 4's Stop the Week in the 1980s, he became Britain's best-known psychiatrist and earned his own vehicle, In the Psychiatrist's Chair. Starting in 1982, this series ran until 2001 and also transferred to TV. Series highlights include conversations with Bob Monkhouse, Cecil Parkinson and Gerry Adams.
Holy crap, that was the single best Vidal upload of all TH-cam-time.
Eeew. As a woman who has given birth to two sons and is not a pervert, I would be nauseated to listen to any more of it.
No. I am not twelve. I can see why you might ask. Aren't mothers and sons hardwired to find such thoughts repulsive after a certain age, though? It was my visceral reaction.
@@coreycox2345 You should read Myra Breckenridge. Trust me, you'll love it.
@@tarnopol Will do. If his books are half as impressive as his interviews, I will.
@@coreycox2345 His novels are good, but his essays ('Rocking the Boat', for one) are brilliant.
My favourite Anthony Clare interview was with Geoffrey Boycott. When he asked him "in the history of cricket, who has been a better batsman than you?" Sir Geoffrey responded: "nobody comes to mind..."
A brilliant man speaks, brilliantly, about his brilliance. Brilliant!
"We live in an empire with two right wings." Gore Vidal.
Yes, Centre Right and Loony Right.
And he was part of it.
@@davidwhite4874 And so are we all...unfortunately, my extorted tax dollars bombing children.
@@davidwhite4874 Always considered himself a socialist.
@@alanwilliams3677 He was part of the elite. He could 'consider' himself whatever he liked.
I had a crush on Gore Vidal when I was a young child in the late sixties, early seventies. He reminded me of my father. My Father was a tad bit older than Gore. I also watched the old complainer William F Buckley Jr. (Firing Line) but he just too scary. But if you notice. Gore has this beautiful sing songy, voice. Mother Gore sounds like a narcissist. Of course, so happy that fueled Gore's ego and pride. I wouldn't change a thing about the man. So sad he's gone. The whole "greatest generation" is now almost gone. My fathers generation.
Anthony Clare would have had a field day with you! 🤣
"I am extremely belligerent... and that is - perhaps - my worst characteristic." He is so honest. Seemingly no fear in being honest and saying what he believes: a great model.
OK, but it is clear that he doesn't understand or appreciate love.
Steven: Yes, Vidal was a great model. I wish we had him in today's world.
Robert Crawford he had a loving friendship with Howard Austen. I wouldn’t believe the front he put on.
@@rkrw576 On the contrary, GV was at war with a culture that despises love.
Yeah, well if you manage to get into a position like Gore. Otherwise insecure people wiith more clout than you will destroy you as you attempt it on a lower level.
La Rochefoucauld said, "One loves, the other is loved."? Then his quote found its way into "Of Human Bondage."
Since Vidal's death, there as been no one to take his place. We need another Gore Vidal in this country, now.
You have, he's called Peter Hitchens.
After Anthony Burgess died I knew that it was a matter of time before there would be no-one left in letters who could speak English.
It was Christopher Hitchens, not Peter.
@@petermitchell6348 Hitch died years before GV
I agree. As true today as it's ever been. I'm working on a book called "Do I know You?" Finger's crossed. XOX
America's GREATEST historian!! Hands down!!
Gore Vidal, come back! The world misses you! The world needs you!
What a phenomenal program! A million *thanks* for sharing this audio gem!
Side note- Brits are SO very lucky to have radio programming of this caliber. Ditto for all the historical & cultural BBC TV programs.
British panel shows are a treat as well, particularly when compared to the inane drivel that passes as TV here in the U.S. "Have I Got News For You" is consistently excellent & "QI" NEVER fails to stimulate both my funny bone AND brain.
Brits have the likes of Stephen Fry & Sir David Attenborough. We have the Kardashian silicone sisters & "Swamp People" which is about a family of alligator hunters. Swamp People indeed- a whopping 120 IQ & 42.5 human teeth could be attained if one combined the entire family.
My apologies for the lengthy digression. Perhaps now the uploader understands my genuine gratitude!
Not since the 80s I'm afraid.
The BBC have regrettably been overtaken by woke...
@@benphilips9918 What does 'woke' mean?
Thank you for your 'lengthy digression.' Despite 'Woke', you are still correct. Just change 'Brits' to 'Britons,' and I would be perfectly happy.
What a wonderful interview, perhaps the best one of GV I've ever heard.
There's no one I know of today, that speaks with so much knowledgeable and common sense. Its a rearity in a world with record people attending schools and colleges. Who carry an intelligent conversation for five minute's.
HAHAAAA! That joke at the end! What a miraculous and exceptional human being. A class class act!
This is one of the best interviews with Gore Vidal. I have never been a fan of Antony Clare but Gore is completely open and not at all superior which he has every justification with such a would be integration. Well done and Thankyou for posting. I have discovered a lot about existence and then nonsense of Freud.
“All of the great boors have been analyzed ... “
O thank you I miss and love this man what a genius!
Thanks! Take GV's born intelligence/education, add his losses of so many friends in WWII's Battle of the Bulge, and you have a person with less than zero time for BS of any kind. That's why he's so bracing---
"What is happiness?" My God I love this man!!! "Southern women know."" Yes we do.....
You only believe you know. There is a difference. Happiness for some people equals misery for other people. Feelings, in general, are an enigma.
"An insatiable need to shock." No. Hardly. It is just that truth today seems shocking to some. Anyone who speaks truth is regarded by some as shocking.
There’s one thing I’ve noticed about Gore, when he gets a semi personal question, he always brings up something else, like, “That reminds me of a funny story, or that brings me to a story about…..bla bla bla, He doesn’t want to ever break down the wall.
True, but he explains why in the Melvyn Bragg interview South Gate 2008. It was because: he was brought up never to talk about yourself -- instead, be interested in listening to others; all his writing already conveys what he thinks and who he is; he holds no skeletons and does not lie; he believes psychology is not a category to be explained but lived, which makes him very much an existentialist.
@@thedolphin5428 Quite so. I remember a discussion regarding Ian Fleming, a man of the same generation. People commented that he was always embarrassed to talk about himself. It was not a topic that he found remotely interesting. He was not being modest, or secretive. It was simply not done among a certain class to self-examine and self-explain. It was viewed as somewhat common. In exactly the same way it was viewed as beneath the salt to be seen to exert any real effort to accomplish a task. Everything had to look like the swan upon the water, rather than examining the legs beating apace beneath.
We should be wary of judging past ages through modern eyes.
I love those who can constructively use the intelligence they were born with and developed.
"Because you didn't have to dress for dinner." LOL!!! God bless him.
thank you so much for this. I love gore vidal
What a magnificent interview.
" Southern women know everything ..they are born knowing everthing..."
Only earlier I listened to Orson Wells from an interview from
1960 and the gems gleaned from it, and then this (laughing)
I miss him, he possessed an acid wit and lets be honest also at times quite vindictive (Capote.)
Norman Mailer was a bully masking as an masculine symbol.
Thank you for this upload, it's worth the price of admission to the freak show that is America
( George Carlin)
Peace...from Texas
Acerbic wit and quicksilver repartee spiked with a piquancy only his bellicosity could induce in multiple encounters with friends and enemies----Gore was a man of parts whose nib was dipped in honey, vitriol and a sanative solution of a magic potion.
He avoided the false notes in the arias shepherds sing to lull their sheep.
listening to this you would think he was single and completely self reliant...Howard Austen must have had very little ego to have put up with 50 + years of living with this man...in fact Gore and Howard, while there was no sexual relationship to speak of after a while , were married in every other sense of the word and Vidal missed him greatly after his partner died...the defensive wall was always up around Vidal...the real person is not revealed here or in his possibly manufactured lone love affair with a boy long since gone and unable to give an account...how convenient
Thanks so much for sharing this!!!
Great interview. I miss Gore.
me too
Wonder what he would say about all the current insanity?
Certain he would not approve of the censorship on social media.
To have written, lived, seen and experienced as much as he did
happines is absence of sadness
Wonderful, many thanks.
BBC4 radio should launch a new “in the Psychiatrist Chair” show/podcast.
At about 21:00 talking of friends and classmates who became war casualties, just no longer being here. He explains in his own fashion the moods of my mother, born within a month of him, and my father three years younger, in regards to their schoolmates, childhood friends, and for my mother, classmates, lost in the Second World War. And their sometimes perfunctory ending of what had been a whimsical recollection.
At least 2 hours longer would have been my preference.
This makes me long for Gore. Is there anyone like him...I haven't found them If there is.
A rare, unguarded, candid chuckle and moment @ 19:53 about Romeo & Juliet's doomed loved..very funny too
Mother telling her children everything on her mind is not a normal motherly practice. It is selfish to a child.
Madame Charles D'Gaulle: "A penis".
LOL. Brilliant.
We are all in search of "Appi-Ness" 😃
awesome conversation.
"Freud was a great novelist. . ." - Nice.
"Madame means HAppiness."
The best interview with the Last of the American Court Jesters... and I've watched scores of them.
TOP MAN. MISSED.
Gore Vidal absolutely must come back if only to give us his unique and witty take on the Age of Trumpism. Then again, he'd probably say he's lucky not to around now.
As Biden leads us off to an economic depression and nuclear war.
If you think Vidal would approve of this woke, leftist $hit show, you are insane.
Aah, pre 9/11 days, good times!
Thank you Bush, for whom we can’t have nice things!
lol. If you really think our mess started with W, you know neither about Gore Vidal's opinions nor much about history in general! How does it feel to be so myopic in your worldview?
The psychiatrist was outwitted, outmatched and outclassed. Game, set and match to Vidal.
Didn't realize it was a game. Hard to outwit him. He cannot not be funny and witty.
@@jamesanthony5681 indeed!
Vidal was so independent and smart. Why did this psychiatrist bother to try to question his credibility!
Julie Sperber that’s the point of the show. Don’t think Vidal isn’t consumed by demons, he is
@@mariuszlubko8014
Rubbish. He's an open book. Extremely self aware, just not interested in talking about himself.
@ 14:58 I believe your statements about how mothers can affect or not their children are at least wrong or a bit selfish! you're probably right the role of a mother was minimal for you because of all the exceptional life circumstances you were blessed with lavish aristocratic lifestyle, diverse friends & company that nourished you, educated you.. yes, in your case a mother role to make or break you was irrelevant!
but 99% of human beings on this planet don’t belong to your 1%... so a good mother is essential for making a man or woman solvent in society.
I am aware you have reincarnated in an Indian slum to experience poverty, can’t wait to read your books inspired by your new environment 😊
Much love Mr. Vidal.
Well said ❤
Brilliant stuff.
Shopenhaeur describes life as "...an unprofitable episode interrupting an eternity of blissful calm." Roughly what Vidal subcribes to. Pity it has to be Vidal who has left us to weather the unprofitable Trumpean episode we are currently enduring without Vidal to cast his withering eye over Trump and the shennigans of his coterie of moronic bandits.
Love this man.
No, Mr. Vidal. Love is not an illusion. It is a high idea of living. In your bitterness you confuse illusion with delusion. And in most cases it becomes deluded because the person in love is too infantile and self centered to experience actual love.
Of course love is an illusion. It is a described and defined differentlh by every person. Therefore it is a subjective, self projection, ie an illusion, ie whatever you think it is.
Relationships with Attachment Figures, which are: emotionally available, mirroring, and attuned, regardless of gender, are the formative roles in a child's development. If fathers, have these attributes, they are important, but not because of their gender. Mother-love, and the idea of men being, "incapable" of doing the work that women do, has more to do with the idea that women, have, some inherent significance, emotional or not, in the task of child-rearing.
I enjoyed this - terribly!
vidal sounds like a fake. but I JUst met him an hour ago
most honest...i have ever heard any person in the public eye......gore vidal is the most intelligent perceptive person of his time....read his book of essays..its only about 1200 pages
totally agree with what gore says about love..since it is exactly the way i feel and see it...nice to have him on my side!:)
If only i'd have a dot of the way this man expresses "things", i'd be okay.
'I'm not disappointed.' BECAUSE YOU'RE GORE VIDAL! Fuck's sake.
This is great so sad these 2 smart Interesting men are both dead 💔
This was good, with a great punchline. Surprisingly genial on both parts.
You didn't have to dress for dinner." LOL
Pushed too far by the good doctor, he would become very belligerent, indeed. He's such a great man.
love this cat
"Wedding Breakfast", never watched it, with Bete Davies 👍
The other movie was " ? " with Alec Guiness.
That Clinton and De gaulle joke are hilarious 39:17
Great upload.
Was anyone able to hear the Macmillan joke with de Gaulle?
+Dan Engelke Yes Dan, he said "Madame de Gaulle means "happiness" ;)
"Madam means HAppiness."
I've read heaps of Gore Vidal and am becoming more convinced that he was not homosexual, as some might have it, but a psychological reaction to his mother. Of course I realise that many before me will have realised this....but, hey, am I completely off track? Please be respectful in your comments, I am not out to offend anyone.
Lol trauma doesn't turn you gay 😂😂😭
@@Ekalavya No, of course not...but trauma can make one avoidant and consider alternatives, and its the nature of his relationship modalities that he spoke of in some of his writings that made me wonder my point, particularly his physical liaisons elsewhere with other guys despite what sounded like an intimate but non-physical relationship with Howard.
For the record, I'm not suggesting a cause of homosexuality as that does not intrigue anymore or less as to why people are heterosexual...and I'm sure you understand that plenty of purely hetro guys can be terrible misogynists.
I'm not in the least suggesting Vidal was in anyway misogynist, just perhaps somewhat avoidant in his own chosen way, but Gore certainly is an intriguing intellect and person, bold in so many ways that what may have been a vulnerability in his earlier years turn into strengths.
Frankly, regardless of Vidal's preferences, by his own words, it kind of saddened me reading how his early loss of his close friend due to war seemed to have affected his ability for physical intimacy within a relationship later.
I think our current world would benefit from more Gore Vidal's, particularly in leadership positions he knew so well. Reckon he would have dwarfed JFK.
As Gore would say himself -- Homosexuality and heterosexuality are both just a figment of mind.
As a gay man, I have met very few homosexuals, just a lot of guys with a dock fetish.
THANKS! GV is always water in the desert. "Your vision seems very bleak." "That's because I'm alive."
Few people know that young Freud first spoke to Vienna's new psychiatric professionals reporting massive numbers of father-or-male rape of young women in clients' families. He was told to be quiet or "fix" his research or he'd never work again. So Freud invented the Oedipus/Electra thing---i.e., daughters WANT this from older men. No wonder he got everything wrong after that hugely destructive lie. (Source: book "Against Therapy.")
"I didn't like the company of other children. I prefered the company of adults, they were much more interesting."
Sooooh Fantastic
Gore Vidal is brilliant at combating Professor Anthony Clare, almost as good as Sir Jimmy Savile at dodging the pertinent questions.
Complete ego, but wonderful to read. Insisted on being Gore Vidal, as William Buckley insisted on his turf. Absolutely amusing people. Refined ego.
libra is sign of 'the other', balance between two. but his sun and mercury conjunct mars, all square pluto, and scorpio ascendant, was never going to be easy.
Wow, that so explains him. Did you seriously do his chart? Excellent work.
Freudian theories of sexuality are very persuasive
thanx for this...Gore rox.....
Great...
A fascinating son of a bitch.
he is beautifully defensive,a stoic intelligence also as the doctor waits in the wings of a break through,as i wait for his voice to break,craig nz
Even though psychology and psychiatry are pseudoscience, I enjoyed this conversation very much.
Love his reflection as a child, how he loved being around adults, more interesting. Can identify with that, and today relic memories off listening to ( now) historic reflections off life which is just now Cultures which has dissapeared. And, yes write on it. Must say, had an incredible child hood. Vidal Gore, interesting reflection children brought up by Nannys' create a distant emotional stand off. Greatest coment, don't have sex with your friend. At one point in my life I was a Nanny. And, see it as a tortorous experience for children. But, as a writer, perfect as a disconnect observer off life. For Nation leaders , the ability to negotiate as an analogist of situations .Serene! ? You are a Shakespearean Mafisto!!!! Who loves upend situations.. Would be fun to discourse with you. Agree About, Robert Kennedy .Augh , hope I don't pay for that one.
Mother must have been spoiled.
Freud, more front than Brighton...What a charlatan.
Sounds like he was really spoiled. Wish I had his life !
He also worked hard: books, plays, essays, movies...and a professional wit and commentator.
He never went to college, and since the age of 17 when he entered WWII, he essentially was on his own.
I was also breast fed and believe it's great all natural I don't remember what it taste like but looks good.
'Same-sex sex'. Brilliant terminology.
Shout out saugerties lol
It's like an atheist talking to theist.
He sounded only interested in outwitting Anthony Clare instead of talking candidly about himself. And in doing so came across as smug. Taking into account his assumptions that he knew what was going on in other people's marriages, I wasn't impressed. This being my first encounter with Gore Vidal though, I may be missing something as everyone else seems enthralled.
Read and listen to more of him. You will better understand how wrong you are.
The
Vidal…one of the few liberal geniuses.
He is my delfino no longer.
Great
Okay, Gore, I give the hell up. Not that II''m a completely untalented failure but you're way the hell a better survivor than I am . Cheers an' 'at.
A
The psychiatrist sounds like Anthony Clare
Because it IS...
Sounds like a wanker to me.
I was born with a male twin who was still born
you mean "stillborn". No space inbetween. The space makes it two words with an entirely different meaning.
lol....
@@herberthuncke1288 I was an only twin.
Vidal is really full of himself. he will be forgotten
buzz kirschner : while you will be remembered for centuries, of course.
have you read any of Vidal’s books? Palimpsest, start with
Read his essays. They're brilliant and will be his tickets to posterity. His novels are very good also.
@@stevecox7075 hahahahaha, poor Buzz.
@@bluetoad2001 I've read quite a few, and he is extremely interesting. I would suggest that your comment is an example of projection.