Eighty-five years ago, as Europe was plunged into the Second World War, one death found its way into the news of the fighting that dominated the pages of the world’s major newspapers. It was September 23, 1939.
It was the death of the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, considered the founder of the school of psychoanalysis.
This thinker revolutionized the world with ideas such as that psychological problems could be treated through conversation sessions, instead of resorting to confinement or violence.
Freud, who was 83 and Jewish, died at number 20 Maresfield Gardens in London’s Hampstead, thousands of miles from Vienna, where he spent most of his life.
On the occasion of the anniversary of his death, BBC Mundo has reconstructed the last months of Freud’s life with the help of historians and biographers.
Without many options
Theories such as the Oedipus complex, according to which boys and girls are attracted to their parents of the opposite sex, or that many psychological disorders have sexual origins made Freud a global figure at the beginning of the 20th century.
“Freud was a figure of international significance”Mariano Ben Plotkin, an expert in the history of psychoanalysis and author of the book “Dear Dr. Freud: A Cultural History of Psychoanalysis in Latin America,” told BBC Mundo.
And to illustrate the scientist’s stature, Plotkin appealed to a personal anecdote.
“In 1932, the father of an acquaintance of mine wrote a letter to Freud, but As he did not have his full address, he simply wrote on the envelope: Professor Freud, Vienna; and the letter arrived.because Freud answered it. I think that today not even with (footballer Lionel) Messi could something like that happen,” he said.
However, Freud’s fame also put him in the crosshairs of Nazism, who called his theories “Jewish pseudoscience.”
However, the scientist did not consider himself in danger, not even because in May 1933 his books, along with those of other authors – mostly Jewish – were burned by supporters of Adolf Hitler in a square in front of the University of Berlin.
“What progress we are making! In the Middle Ages they would have burned me, but Today they are content with burning my books”Freud wrote with his characteristic sarcasm to a friend, says American journalist Andrew Nagorski in his book Saving Freud.
But how did he end up in London?
“Well, there weren’t many places in the world, especially in Europe, where I could have gone.”Plotkin replied.
“We are talking about 1938, when, as a colleague of mine said, Jews were expelled in some countries, in others they were not allowed to enter, and in others they were going to be exterminated,” he added.
Giuseppe Albano, director of the Freud Museum in London, which is located in the house where Freud lived in the British capital, offers other reasons.
“Freud had been to England, London in particular, and he loved the city,” he said, recalling that One of his sons, Ernst, was already living in the British capital..
However, Plotkin said that the renowned researcher could have gone into exile in Latin America.
“If I had wanted I could have ended up in Chile, Mexico or Argentina.where he received unofficial invitations, but from intellectuals and academics, to go. These offers included promises that his expenses would be covered,” said the expert.
Freud did not speak Spanish, but he read it fluently and this allowed him to correct the translations of his works before they were published.
Overcoming reluctance
But convincing the scientist to leave Vienna was not an easy task.
“I don’t think there is any danger here (in Vienna) and if I come, I am firmly resolved to wait for it.”Freud wrote to Princess Marie Bonaparte, a descendant of the French emperor and one of the architects of the operation to get him out of Austria.
Even the annexation of the Alpine country by Nazi Germany (Anschluss) in March 1938 did not immediately change his mind. This was despite the fact that on the very day that Hitler travelled to Vienna to announce the incorporation of his homeland into the German Reich, SS agents broke into his home and confiscated his and his family’s passports.
The incident was reported by John Cooper Wiley, an American diplomat in Vienna, who sent a telegram to Washington warning that the scientist was at risk.
“Fear for Freud, despite his age and illness he is in danger,” he wrote, according to the digital archives of the United States Congress.
However, it was not until his beloved daughter Anna was briefly arrested by the Gestapo a few days later that Freud gave in.
“This was not an easy decision for him. Freud did not want to leave Viennabut Anna’s arrest prompted him to make the decision to leave, because he realized that he had to put his family and himself first,” Albano explained.
Princess Bonaparte, together with other followers and friends of Freud such as the Welsh doctor Ernest Jones, began the complex task of organizing the papers and, above all, raise the funds to cover the cost of the trip.
Much of the money raised was used to pay bail to the Nazis to allow him and his entourage, which numbered more than a dozen people, including his wife and daughter, his doctor, his family and his maid, and to recover part of the library and antiquities that they confiscated from him.
On June 4, 1938, the founder of psychoanalysis boarded the famous Orient Express bound for Paris, France, and days later was in London.
Why did the Nazis allow Freud to flee? Experts consulted by BBC Mundo attribute this to the researcher’s fame.
“He was globally famous and had the support of many influential people,” said the director of the Freud Museum in London.
The operation was unexpectedly helped by a Nazi bureaucrat (Anton Sauerwald), who did not put too many obstacles in the way of the family’s departure. The reason? “I decided not to have any more concussions”he explained at the trial he underwent at the end of the war.
A star that was going out
The United Kingdom welcomed the Austrian doctor with open arms, as if he were a celebrity.
“A crowd waited for Freud at Victoria train station and even the taxi driver he got into didn’t even ask him where he had to take him, because it had already been in the press where he would be staying,” Albano said.
However, the scientist was not the same as the one who had previously visited the city, not only because of his advanced age, but because the oral cancer that he had been battling since 1923, and which forced him to undergo 33 operations, had reappeared with virulence.
“He arrived very sick and in fact they had already removed part of his palate and he had to use a prosthesis that was extremely uncomfortable, painful and made it difficult for him to speak,” said Plotkin.
Despite this, Freud remained intellectually active almost until the end of his life. In London he finished his last book, “Moses and Monotheism,” thanks to which he was able to buy what would be his final resting place and which today is a museum in his honor.
“He got a mortgage from a bank thanks to the advance he received for his last book and with that he was able to buy this house for 6,500 pounds (US$ 8,558),” Albano said.
In addition, He continued with his clinic and saw at least four patients regularly.including Dorothy Burlingham, granddaughter of American businessman Charles Tiffany, founder of Tiffany jewelry.
And, of course, he received numerous invitations to academic and social events, most of which he declined.
However, her house became a magnet for celebrities. There she received visits from figures such as the Spanish painter Salvador Dalí and the writer Virginia Wolf and her husband, Leonard, who were the editors of her works in English.
With the mind always in Vienna
Life in exile gave the scientist mixed feelings.
“I found the warmest welcome in beautiful, free, and generous England. Here I live now, a welcome guest, relieved from that oppression and Happy to be able to speak and write again“he wrote in his book “Moses and Monotheism.”
However, in a letter to a friend he admitted not feeling completely adjusted.
“All things came here, only I am not here”he wrote after the arrival of part of his library and 2,500 pieces from his collection of antiquities.
“Freud was grateful to be free, to have a garden, as he had never had one; and above all he was relieved that his family were safe, but I don’t think it is correct to say that he was happy (…) He never felt at home“Albano conceded.
Plotkin expressed similar opinions, adding: “One must bear in mind that for an 82-year-old person who was ill, an international move is not easy (…) London offered him freedom and the possibility of dying in freedom, but it was clearly not the place where he felt comfortable.”
Pioneer of dignified death
Freud’s cancer, a condition aggravated by his habit of smoking 20 cigarettes a day, was inoperable and untreatable.
However, the scientist had made arrangements with his doctor for “your old and dear cancer”as he came to refer to his condition, would not cause him unnecessary suffering.
On September 22, his doctor Max Schur gave him 400 milligrams of morphine, a dose that caused his death the next day.
“He made a decision that today would be called assisted suicide”noted Albano, who considered the date chosen by Freud to end his life striking.
“That day was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews (…) and although he was not religious, he was very aware of his Jewish roots and became more so towards the end of his life,” he concluded.
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