Description
Book SynopsisWho was Martha Bernays, the Hamburg-born woman who, after a long and turbulent engagement and against the opposition of her mother, married the Viennese doctor Sigmund Freud and lived at his side for more than fifty years as wife and mother of six? How did she feel, coming from a traditional Jewish family but living in a household with no religious background? How did she cope with the challenge of being married to the man whose work revolutionized our ways of thinking about human sexuality?
In this, the first biography of Martha Freud, Katja Behling portrays this remarkable woman, whose loyalty and steadfastness contributed in no small measure to the extraordinary success of psychoanalysis as it went from strength to strength and spread from Vienna to the four corners of the earth.
Trade Review"A remarkable story."
—Prospect
"Behling evokes a Martha who is a far more substantial woman that the 'adored sweetheart in youth' and 'beloved wife in maturity' Freud apostrophized. This book stands alone or as worthy companion to any biography of Freud."
—Lisa Appignanesi
"Finally a long overdue biography of Martha Freud gives us an authentic picture of the family life of her husband, Sigmund Freud. Speculations about Freud's personal life which range from the trivial to the salacious will need to shop short on the frontier of this excellent portrait of a highly ethical and decent human being and the hard work and the love it takes to establish and transmit these qualities. Martha Freud constructed a network of child- and husband-care and social concern whose inspiration and independence prohibits dismissive attitudes towards the traditional stereotype of the good hausfrau under which she has laboured. Behling's book gives us a picture of a particular woman which makes us rethink our general categories."
—Juliet Mitchell, University of Cambridge
Table of ContentsForeword by Anton W. Freud
Preface
HAMBURG
A Hamburg Childhood
The Move to Vienna
Isaac Bernays, Martha’s Grandfather
Berman Bernays, Martha’s Father
Emmeline Bernays, Martha’s Mother
The Lovely Martha
Cupid’s Arrow
Wandsbek
The Cocaine Episode: an Opportunity Missed
Paris
Eli Bernays, Martha’s Brother
Till Death Us Do Part
VIENNA
Berggasse 19
Minna Bernays, Martha’s Sister
Sigmund and Martha Freud
Travel
Berlin
Friends
Martha as a Mother
The Freud Family
Martha’s Children
Later Years: She was ‘Normal'
Illnesses
LONDON
Emigration
Refuge in Hampstead
The Death of Her Husband
The Second World War
The Final Years
Martha’s Death
Martha and Her Influence on Psychoanalysis
Martha Freud, an Epilogue
APPENDIX
Chronological Table
Bibliography
Notes
Illustrations
Acknowledgements
