Russell Meets Romans

I went to my psychiatrist
    to be psychoanalyzed
To find out why I killed the cat
    and blacked my husband's eyes.
He laid me on a downy couch
    to see what he could find,
And here is what he dredged up
    from my subconscious mind:

When I was one, my mommie hid
    my dolly in a trunk,
And so it follows naturally
    that I am always drunk.
When I was two, I saw my father
    kiss the maid one day,
And that is why I suffer now
    from klepto-ma-ni-a.

At three, I had the feeling
    of ambivalence toward my brothers,
And so it follows naturally
    I poison all my lovers.
But I am happy now I've learned
    the lesson this has taught;
That everything I do that's wrong
    is someone else's fault.

-- Anna Russell (1911-2006)

I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died; the very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

-- Saint Paul (Romans 7:9-13)