Sigmund Freud-Anna Freud Letters

BOOK REVIEW

Matias Strassburger

Psychiatrist. Member of APRS. Member, Institute of Psychoanalysis, Sociedade Psicanalítica de Porto Alegre (SPPA), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.

^{Correspondence}

Sigmund Freud-Anna Freud Letters

Correspondência Sigmund Freud-Anna Freud

Ingeborg Meyer-Palmedo, org.

Porto Alegre, L&PM, 2008

When we are facing the challenge of reading a book of letters, we might feel as if we have to accomplish a difficult, somewhat boring and uninteresting task, especially if the book has 500 pages. Letters belong to the world of the those who write them. Would it be interesting to someone else to know the motivations expressed in words by each one of the writers? It depends. If the letters were written by the father of psychoanalysis and his daughter, who was also a psychoanalyst and important thinker in the field, the answer can be: yes, it is not only interesting but it also can be a rich, instigating and clarifying reading concerning several facets of both writers' lives -- including the relationship between father and daughter, like in any relationship of that kind, with its conflicts and ambivalences, as well as the father's attempt, here as an analyst, to help his daughter to better understand her internal world, or as a professional colleague showing his concern with the fate of psychoanalysis through discussions about theory, technique and institutional policies.

Maybe there would be no need of other reasons to make this book one of those books that are worth facing in spite of their numerous pages. However, if we needed some incentive, we would certainly find motivation in the finely written and detailed description of the changes in the family and in the world both writers lived in at that time; a description containing Freud and Anna's sensitivity. Those days were loaded with important events, since the letters were sent between 1904 and 1938: the 1st World War, the fear of Nazism preparing the horrible events that would briefly take place and the moves the Freud family had to take to keep, as much as possible, unite and alive. The move from one country to another, the long-time friends and the new and necessary ones, the passion for dogs, the attempt to live a normal life, even during a period of complete lack of normality clearly appear in the lines and between the lines written and shared between father and daughter.

But if even so there would be still any doubts about how interesting this seminal book is, we could add to the list of reasons the huge and meticulous work performed by the author Ingeborg Meyer-Palmedo. Only the compilation and the arrangement of the letters according to the dates they were written are enough to make this book a source of pleasure and knowledge. But the author was not satisfied with the result and, for each detail described by Freud and Anna, she wrote a footnote providing the reader with the context regarding the time, the people involved, the regions from where the narrators wrote, most of the time offering comparisons with other bibliographic sources. In order to accomplish this task, in addition to books, the author used other letters written by Freud and Anna to several different people, as well as unpublished material she was able to research. All this effort help us to transform the reading of this book into a journey through time, on board of a spaceship led by Freud and Anneri (which was how Freud used to call her), sharing their private moments and learning about psychoanalysis, the human being, family, tolerance, survival, and finally, learning about life.

Enjoy your reading!

There are no conflicts of interest associated to the publication of this book review.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  19 Mar 2009
• Date of issue
  Dec 2008