Despite being based on a true story and having characters inspired by people who actually existed, "Titanic" has several historical inaccuracies, including a joke made by Rose's (Kate Winslet) character.
During the meal scene in the first class dining room, Rose, her mother Ruth (Frances Fisher) and her fiancé Cal Hockley (Billy Zane) are accompanied by Molly Brown (Kathy Bates), Thomas Andrews (Victor Garber) and J. Bruce Ismay (Jonathan Hyde).
As they talk about how the ship was designed, Molly states that it was she who thought of the name Titanic for the ship, but it is Ismay who gets the credit for it.
Ismay explains the reason for the name and says that he wanted to convey the idea of pure size, since size means stability, luxury and, above all, strength.
It is at this point that Rose asks if he knows Dr. Freud - considered the father of Psychoanalysis - and if he is familiar with his ideas about male preoccupation with size [of the genital organ], stating that they might "be of particular interest to him."
Molly and Mr. Andrews laugh, as well as leaving Ruth totally indignant. Ismay doesn't understand what Rose is telling him and asks if Freud is a passenger on the Titanic.
WHERE IS THE MISTAKE?
This scene is a major historical inaccuracy, as Sigmund Freud's theories on this particular subject had not yet been published at the time of the sinking.
As pointed out by many viewers over the years, Sigmund Freud's ideas about the size of the male genital organ were not published until 1920, specifically in the essay "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," and therefore it made no sense that Rose knew them, since the Titanic sank in 1912.
Some argue that Rose might have known Freud's theories before the publications, since they were spread orally, and Rose was an intellectually refined girl. In any case, the author's thoughts only gained traction even after 1920.
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