Addendum.

I forgot -

On the day when the prof asked me to take over teaching on a novel from the 1940s, I did this very quick mini-presentation on how the unconscious was at peak popular knowledge in the 1950s, ultimately asking students if they saw the novel that we were reading on that same trajectory, why or why not.

And, as one of the quick reasons I gave for why the unconscious was at peak popular knowledge in the 1950s, I mentioned how Scientology was a reactionary movement against that, premised on the idea of locating in your past lives the reasons you did mysterious things now, in order to free yourself from those unneeded and counterproductive compulsions.

"So you probably hate it here," I was like.  "Why am I here?  It's so tough.  There's so much work, and everyone's so miserable.  I hate it here.  So," I was like, "you go to a Scientologist, and then you discover that you were a monk a thousand years ago, and you used to self-flagellate a lot, and so you became addicted to pain."

At that, the room went into uproar.  The kids really liked that joke!