Freudové – Weissweilorá Eva (2008)

In 1936, Sigmund Freud wrote to the writer Arnold Zweig: "Whoever becomes a biographer commits to lies, concealment, hypocrisy, embellishment, for biographical truth is not available, and even if it were, it could not be used." This aversion to depicting privacy has been adopted by almost all of Freud's biographers, except for the author of this biography. Eva Weissweiler captures even what Freud himself referred to as the "family romance," such as the psychoanalyst's fanatical hatred for his five sisters as a possible root of his strange belief that women, unlike men, have no "superego." Eva Weissweiler attempts to remedy this lack of information. She explores Sigmund Freud's role as a brother, father, grandfather, uncle, and husband; she allows those figures who have only appeared in footnotes in the literature to speak in their own voice. Of his six children, only Anna, the guardian of the grail, is usually mentioned. Weissweiler brings the others to life – Mathilde, Martin, Oliver, and Ernst, as well as his wife Marta. She draws from numerous unpublished letters archived in London, Washington, and Jerusalem, interpreting them critically and sensitively. The result is a thrilling yet tragic family history that spans from the times...