LYNNE LEHRMAN WEINER Author and Editor
SIGMUND FREUD THROUGH LEHRMAN’S LENS
Based on the Lehrman Weiner documentary film “Sigmund Freud, His Family and Colleagues, 1928–1947” Filmed by Philip R. Lehrman, produced and edited by Lynne Lehrman Weiner
Philip R. Lehrman
Psychosozial-Verlag
All the photographs printed in this book are protected under the copyright laws of the United States and U.S. agreement with foreign countries pertaining thereto, and are registered with the Library of Congress. All rights reserved by Lynne Lehrman Weiner.
The still-frame digital representations were made from the 16mm documentary film “Sigmund Freud, His Family and Colleagues, 1928–1947” © 1985 and 1987 filmed by Philip R. Lehrman, M.D., edited and produced with sound narration by Lynne Lehrman Weiner, 1986.
Bibliographic information of Die Deutsche Bibliothek (The German Library) Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie (German National Bibliography). Detailed bibliographical data can be accessed via internet (http://dnb.ddb.de).
Original edition © 2008 Psychosozial-Verlag Goethestr. 29, D-35390 Giessen Phone: +49-641-77819; Telefax: +49-641-77742 E-mail: info@psychosozial-verlag.de www.psychosozial-verlag.de ISBN 978-3-89806-841-3
All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the publisher.
Cover: Philip R. Lehrman and Sigmund Freud. Courtesy of Lynne Lehrman Weiner. Cover layout: Draft design by Atelier Warminski, Büdingen. Layout by Till Wirth. Printed by Majuskel Medienproduktion GmbH, Wetzlar. www.digitalakrobaten.de
CONTENTS
Dedication
7
Exordium and Acknowledgements, by Lynne Lehrman Weiner
9
Preface to Preface
27
Preface, in his Own Words, by Philip R. Lehrman
29
Introduction, by Harold P. Blum
33
Narration of the Documentary Film “Sigmund Freud, his Family and Colleagues, 1928–1947”
41
Berlin, European Metropolis, Psychoanalytical Hub, 1928–1929, by Elke Mühlleitner
83
Psychoanalysis in London, 1928–1929, by Kenneth Robinson
89
Psychoanalysis in Paris, 1928–1929, by Alain de Mijolla
97
Psychoanalysis in Budapest, 1928–1929, by André Haynal and Judit Mészáros
101
The Psychoanalytic Movement in Vienna, 1928–1929, by Johannes Reichmayr
111
Psychoanalysis in New York, 1942–1947, by Nathan G. Hale
117
Biographical Captions
121
19 Letters and other Communications from Sigmund Freud to Philip R. Lehrman
195
Index
213
5
EXORDIUM AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is based on home movies that have been
attend college, his scholarships to Fordham Univer-
part of my life for all of my life.
sity granted him a classic education in philosophy,
They had a humble beginning as 16mm, blackand-white, silent footage filmed by my father, Philip
history, literature, and languages, and its medical school trained him in neurology and psychiatry.
R. Lehrman, M.D., during 1928 and 1929, the year
During his Fordham years, he worked evenings
he studied with Sigmund Freud and was psychoan-
and weekends for a printer, winding string and
alyzed by him. Shot in Vienna, Berlin and Paris, the
wrapping books to earn his subway fare between
movies include Sigmund Freud and members of his
Brooklyn and the Bronx, reserving ten cents a day to
family, and added together with films taken in and
buy a roll and bottle of milk for lunch. All his life he
near New York, in color, from 1942 to 1947, they
remained grateful to the Jesuits for his education.
comprise more than one hundred colleagues and
For many years after he graduated, he and two of
students. My father’s subjects were not always eager
his professors met frequently “for lunch and dialec-
to be immortalized, but now, as part of the early
tics,” he said, mostly on the subject of religion,
annals of psychoanalysis, all are included in my 1986
which he enjoyed debating, from a non-adherent
documentary, Sigmund Freud, His Family and
viewpoint, despite having been raised in an ortho-
Colleagues, 1928–1947, where they are a testament
dox Jewish home.
to my father’s persistence on behalf of history.
When my father was in his teens he seriously considered becoming a concert violinist. He and three neighborhood friends formed a quartet that
Philip Raphael Lehrman
played for many local occasions including, on hot summer evenings, impromptu street performances
Philip Raphael Lehrman emigrated with his family
for which neighbors gathered when they heard the
from a shtetl in Russia to Brooklyn, New York in
instruments being tuned. From one of the flats, the
1905, a month before his tenth birthday. He was an
three boys carried out an upright piano for the
outstanding student who discovered the writings of
group’s 15-year old pianist, who also had a beauti-
Sigmund Freud while still in high school. The fourth
ful mezzo-soprano voice. My father was smitten
of seven children and the first in his large family to
with her the first time they met and she was
9
she could store them and where she would sleep. Young as he was, Dad was sure of one thing from the start: there was something very wrong with this woman. She didn’t say hello to anyone, she didn’t smile, and most of the time she stayed in her corner mumbling to herself. The children all noted that no matter how much their mother did to try to make Miss Patchik comfortable, she never once said “thank you.” His mother whispered soothingly to her children, “She’ll be gone in a few days.” When the holiday was over, however, the woman did not leave. She not only remained, she disappeared from time to time, returning with additional small wrapped packages. When she was out of ear-shot, the children played a guessing game about what was in the “schoenepatchikele” – the name which, henceforth, my father would always call all small packages. One day Dad came home from school and was surprised to find himself alone. He dared himself to open one of the
10
destined to become my mother. Music remained an
packages. He saw bloody undergarments, which
important part of both their lives, but my father
puzzled him. He opened another and saw more of
focused increasingly on his classical studies.
the same. Carefully and guiltily he rewrapped the
His interest in mental health problems seemed to
packages. He felt a strong desire to befriend her but
stem from an incident when he was seven years old
she rejected him, angrily. Only later, when her rela-
in his native town of Plissa, Russia.
tives were found and had taken her in, did Dad share
His mother followed a common tradition in the
his secret with his older sister Ida. In her candid way,
shtetls of the time of inviting Jewish strangers who
Ida explained the menstrual cycle to Dad and assured
were visiting in their town to stay with her family
him that he had done no wrong. No one mourned
for a day or more as the Sabbath or a holiday
Schoene Patchik leaving with all her packages. The
approached. On one such occasion, as Passover
only thing she left behind was an indelible memory
neared, Dad’s mother told the Lehrman children to
in a seven-year-old boy who would later spend his life
make room in their small crowded house for a guest
trying to fathom and treat mental illness.
named Schoene Patchik. She arrived with several
In 1920, Lehrman began his practice of psycho-
small parcels and Dad’s mother showed her where
analysis under the tutelage of Abraham Arden Brill,
America’s first psychoanalyst, and the first to trans-
in subsequent years Dad felt certain, and convinced
late Sigmund Freud’s works into English. The two, 21
his superiors to agree, that his clinic patients would
years apart, became as close as father and son and
benefit more from their psychoanalytic treatments if
Brill offered the basement rooms of his brownstone
they had to pay a fee for them, however small. He
for Dad’s first office. Years later, when Brill was work-
charged them fifty cents per session. Nor could he
ing on his book, Basic Principles of Psychoanalysis,
find a reason why psychoanalysis should be withheld
he asked Dad to edit it and write an introduction.
from anyone because of financial need. His paper’s
When Brill died in 1948, Dad completed the book.
opening lines emphasized that view:
It was published by Doubleday in 1949. One of Dad’s first monographs, The Practice of
A method of therapy, to be practical, must be applicable to patients in all stations of life, since the
Psychoanalysis in a Public Clinic, was written when
diseases for which it is intended include all classes.
he was a 25-year old staff physician with the Vander-
Neither indigence nor affluence is exempt from func-
bilt Clinic of Columbia University’s Medical School.
tioned nervous disorder, and the false belief that the
It proposed applying psychoanalytic techniques to
psychoneuroses predominate among the rich is fostered by the general misconception of the nature
clinic patients. He met resistance among some of his
and mechanism of neuroses.
superiors who considered psychoanalysis experimental and ineffective. And even many psychoanalysts at
Nor did Lehrman consider neurosis a “middle class”
the time thought that patients in public clinics would
affliction, as he had heard it referred to several times.
not make good subjects for psychoanalysis, nor did
His early clinic analyses convinced him that the new
they think that the clinics were proper places to
field of psychoanalysis was an effective method of
practice it. However, Brill, already a renowned
treatment for some patients and that it would grow
authority, and Louis Casamajor, a well-known
best through wide accessibility.
neurologist and psychiatrist, were in favor and
In the United States at that time, the question of
convinced the nay-sayers. When the paper was read
lay analysis was irrelevant because treating patients
in November, 1921, his colleagues and other supe-
in hospitals required a medical degree. That issue,
riors were impressed with Dad’s successful results
however, loomed large in 1926 when Sigmund
with twenty-seven cases. He was praised for his
Freud, spurred by the suit against Theodor Reik,
innovation and credited with being the first to prac-
Ph.D. in Vienna, wrote The Question of Lay-Analy-
tice psychoanalysis in a public clinic. The paper was
sis, in strong defense of it. This little booklet
first published in the Neurological Bulletin Vol. III,
expressed Freud’s earliest fervency about psycho-
No.11–12, November–December, 1921. On January
analysis: that it should not be considered a field
10, 1922, he read it at the New York Academy of
restricted to medical concerns. Although Dad’s expe-
Medicine, Section of Neurology and Psychiatry, and
rience with American laws and medical society
at later professional meetings. As with many other
rulings set his opinion on the subject, it was a
procedures, there was no charge to the patients, but
number of years before he would meet Sigmund
11
Freud, and the issue of lay analysis would be one of
Dad’s mind was set on Sigmund Freud himself and
the few disagreements between the Professor and
he launched a correspondence with Freud that last-
his new student. Nevertheless, Dad considered
ed for about five years. At first, it seemed a hopeless
himself “a fairly orthodox Freudian.” He also
ambition because Freud, who began suffering from
thought, along with A. A. Brill, that because the
cancer of the jaw in 1923, had been accepting only
United States was such a large country, the require-
a few personal students at a time; none, however,
ment of a medical degree and supervision by state
from America. The act of speaking had become an
medical boards were justified to monitor and main-
increasingly painful effort due to his surgeries and,
tain high standards in the training and practice of
although Freud’s English was excellent, contending
psychoanalysts, just as they did among physicians of
with another language caused additional difficulties.
other specialties. In his own practice, if a patient had even the
that good psychoanalytic training was available in
slightest complaint of physical discomfort or if Dad
Berlin or from others in Vienna, but Dad was
had any suspicion that a medical problem existed, he
convinced that if he could meet with Professor Freud
insisted that the patient should get a physical exam-
in person, however briefly, he would be able to
ination before beginning an analysis. More than
change Freud’s mind. In a 1926 letter written while
once, this procedure led to the discovery of heart
Dad was in Vienna, he asked, “Could I just come to
problems, an allergy, ulcers, asthma, appendicitis,
see you?” Freud, whose cheek by then was visibly
and once – unfortunately too late for a famous
sunken due to his surgeries, answered with his char-
composer – a brain tumor.
acteristic, sharp wit:
In 1921 Lehrman became a member of the New
“I cannot imagine what your interest may be in
York Psychoanalytic Society, which Brill had found-
seeing me. I am no great sight …” (Freud letter to
ed. Over the years, he held a number of offices in the
Lehrman, August 10, 1926.) But Freud was a great
Society and served as its President. In addition to his
sight to my dad, who was delighted when they final-
professorships and private practice he was one of
ly met. Dad felt that Freud liked him and was inclined
the founding members of the New York Psychoan-
to accept him; “Perhaps,” Freud had said, “in a year
alytic Institute in 1931, where he supervised many
or so.”
of the psychoanalytic trainees and remained on its teaching faculty to the end of his life.
My father arrived home from that trip to Vienna in a very jovial mood, my mother told me. But it
In the early 1920s, Brill advised Lehrman to seek
wasn’t until March, 1928, that Freud sent his next
his own psychoanalysis, described by Sigmund Freud
letter saying he “saw no fundamental obstacle why
later as “… the irreplaceable discipline of a person-
I should not accept you for an analysis … but I am
al analysis.” (Letter to A. A. Roback, March 24,
not ready to bind myself before I know more about
1930; E. Jones. Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, p.
you.” (Freud to Lehrman, March 11, 1928.)
450). Brill suggested several analysts in Europe, but
12
Freud, in his letters, too, tried to convince Dad
Brill now decided it was time to help his young
friend by using whatever influence he might have
begin. Without meaning to oblige, my father’s
with Freud. He sent a letter praising Lehrman’s schol-
continuous requests to film his idol prompted Freud
arship, his fluency in German, and his thorough
to call my dad’s persistence a compulsion. With that
knowledge of Freud’s writings. Freud was won over
pronouncement, Freud had found his starting point:
and, at last, the eagerly awaited letter arrived
Lehrman’s compulsion would have to be psychoan-
announcing that my father’s analysis would begin in
alyzed before it could be “acted out.” His analysis
Semmering, a mountain resort near Vienna, where
would begin while Freud’s Versagung (his refusal to
Professor Freud, his wife, Martha, and daughter
be filmed) set the film’s scenario.
Anna would spend that summer. “It is 1000 meters
Everyone else was fair game for Dad’s camera,
high, never too hot and excellent air,” Freud wrote
including my mother, brother and me, fellow
(Freud to Lehrman, June 5, 1928). The last lines
students and former students, followers, supporters
read, “Hoping that my health will not fail me as long
and defenders of the professor; friends and ex-
as I can be of use to you” (ibid.). Dad, then 32,
friends who later turned from him and against him
enjoyed the friendliness of the letter from 72-year
– not the lifeless historical names one reads about,
old Freud, whom he had hoped would become his
but colleagues in the flesh who became the second
teacher, his mentor and his analyst.
and third generation in the new field of psycho-
Our whole family became busy with the
analysis. At the time, movie cameras were a rarity
arrangements for our year in Vienna. My mother’s
and the subjects, unless they were prodded, tended
assignment for my brother and me was to choose
to stand stiff, still and stoney-faced. My father’s role
a few favorite toys to take along. Howard, age 6,
as “film director” is easily evidenced as his “actors”
chose his soccer ball and a baseball; I, age 2, select-
performed for the camera: lighting cigarettes, doff-
ed two favorite dolls. Within minutes Howard and
ing their hats, shaking hands, and pretending to be
I were ready to leave and sat on the floor by the
engaged in animated conversation.
front door, never able to figure out why it took
After a few months of analysis, Freud gave Dad
Mom and Dad another month to prepare our
permission to film him. At long last, my father was
departure.
able to document his journey to his guru on the
The clear air and scenic views in Semmering were
mountain top. Beyond the rare footage of Sigmund
perfect for photography, another of my father’s
Freud and members of his family, the film’s addi-
passions, but his frequent requests to film the
tional historical importance is that it is the only
Professor met with equally frequent refusals. Freud
photographic record in existence of many of the
did not like to be photographed. “Remember my
early analysts, particularly those among the Paris
words, not my face,” he would say.
Psychoanalytic Society, whose archives were purged
From their first meeting, Dad said that Freud looked for a starting point – some trait which could
and destroyed by the Nazis during their occupation a few years later.
be extended to a neurosis – where the analysis could
13
The pilot
The cabin attendant
Philip R. Lehrman on the aircraft; the table is laid with a cloth and silverware
PRL:
airport are waving goodbye.) … Some of the land-
The airport in Vienna, where I took off to meet
scape. … My steward on the plane was very congen-
Professor Freud in Berlin. I was the only passenger. I
ial. There I could smoke. [PRL lights a cigarette.] A
had left my wife and son, that time was a little
bit of my narcissism is stuck in there, you notice. [The
fellow. My wife is here and he’s out hunting right
steward is taking movies of him.] I gradually taught
now.
him how to take pictures.
Freud had gone to Berlin for a special denture for his jaw defect due to an operation for cancer several years previously, and he had invited me to join him there. It’s all black and white. No color in those days. … A little dramatics (while his wife and son at the
Howard and Wanda Lehrman
44
The WilhelmstraĂ&#x;e at the corner
The Reichschancellery, 1928
The Brandenburg Gate, fall 1928
of Unter den Linden, 1928
Berlin PRL: [Over street scenes in Berlin and the Hotel Kaiserhof.] On arrival in Berlin I stayed at the Hotel Kaiserhof which was the headquarters of the then-relatively-unimportant Nazi Party, the horror of Europe, and where Hitler and his cohorts occupied the next table to mine. But in those days it was a very nice hotel.
The Hotel Kaiserhof, October 1928
45
The Siegesallee, 1928
A few glimpses of the Berlin which is no more. This is Wilhelmstraße. This is the old Reichschancellery, later Hitler’s headquarters. Brandenburg Gate. Unter den Linden. Siegesallee. This is a bit of the Tiergarten. Potsdamer Platz, now the dividing line between East and West Berlin. The city opera house … [Actually, this is the Vienna Opera House, misplaced in the editing.] … The Opera House theater. Der Deutsche Dom, famous cathedral now
Unter den Linden, 1928
46
Potsdamer Platz, 1928
The Reichschancellery, 1928
The doorplate of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute
in East Berlin. This is the Pergamon Museum of Antiquities. The new home of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute which was opened during Freud’s visit in Berlin in September, 1928. Dr. Max Eitingon, the founder of the Berlin Institute, who headed that clinic since 1922, who after Hitler’s regime, emigrated to Palestine and died in Tel Aviv.
The Pergamon Museum
Max Eitingon, founder of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute
47
Franz Alexander, Berlin, October 1928
Prinzessin Marie and her chow chow Tatoun
Dr. Franz Alexander, later director of the Chicago
gy, [here Dad mentioned the following while
Psychoanalytic Institute, was teaching there. At that
emphasizing with a vocal wink] and also has been
time, he was a young fellow.
psychoanalyzed by Rudolf Loewenstein, he stated.
Princess Marie and her son, Peter, visiting from Paris. He gave a lecture two years ago here in New
[The audience laughed, knowing that Loewenstein and Princess Marie had been lovers.]
York, in the Academy of Science, on polyandrism in
The Princess is standing at the statue of Wilhelm
Tibet. Among his qualifications, he mentioned that
2nd, who had defeated her great uncle, Napoleon.
he was a graduate in law, graduate in anthropolo-
Princess Marie, as you know, was analyzed by Freud.
Princess Marie with her son Prince Peter, Berlin, October 1928
48
The memorial of Wilhelm II
Sándor Radó, Berlin, October 1928
Siegfried Bernfeld, Berlin, October 1928
She wrote three volumes on Edgar Allan Poe and
she was here last spring [1949] and received LL.D.
other applied psychoanalytic works.
from Clark University, the same university that gave
That’s how I worked through my analytic Versa-
that same degree to her father in 1909.
gung. [Freud’s refusal to allow Lehrman to film him.] Dr. Sándor Radó, who later became the first
Dr. René Spitz. And Dr. Siegfried Bernfeld. Dr. Hanns
educational director of the New York Psychoanalyt-
Sachs, who emigrated to Boston. He founded there
ic Institute and subsequently founded the Columbia
the English Imago.
Psychoanalytic Clinic. Anna Freud. At that time she was beginning her brilliant work in child psychoanalysis. As you know,
Anna Freud and René Spitz, Berlin 1928
49
Hanns Sachs, Berlin, October 1928
Erich Kraft, Berlin, October 1928
Harald Schultz-Henke, Berlin, October 1928
LLW: Dr. Theodor Reik. Harald Schultz-Hencke. Erich Kraft.
Theodor Reik, Berlin, October 1928
Entrance to Sanatorium Schloss Tegel near Berlin, fall 1928
50
Dr. Moshe Wulff (left), Ernst Simmel,
Assia Wulff, Dr. Rudolf Bilz,
Ernst Simmel, founder of
Schloss Tegel, fall 1928
Schloss Tegel, October 1928
Schloss Tegel, October 1928
PRL:
know, died a few years ago in Los Angeles. Wulff is
The Sanitorium Schloss Tegel where Freud stayed,
still in Tel Aviv.
the first psychoanalytic intramural sanatorium,
Now, this is the place where Freud stayed during
founded and directed by Ernst Simmel, who subse-
his stay in Berlin. We were supposed to be there only
quently died in Los Angeles. Dr. M. Wulff, his asso-
for two weeks and as the result of the complicated
ciate, came from Russia. Russia was not very
dentistry, he remained there for two months.
congenial to psychoanalysis and so Wulff came to
Simmel was the host.
work in Berlin. And Mrs. Wulff. Simmel, as you
left to right: Rudolf Bilz, Assia Wulff, Ernst Simmel, Eva Rosenfeld
51
19 LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS FROM SIGMUND FREUD TO PHILIP R. LEHRMAN APRIL 1926 THROUGH MAY 1936 [Handwritten letter by Sigmund Freud, in German. Translated at NY Psychoanalytic Institute in 1962.]
6. Apr 1926 PROF. Dr. FREUD
VIENNA XI., BERGGASSE 19.
Dear Dr Lehrman [sic] I am very much in sympathy with your aspirations for thorough psychoanalytic training. You are certainly correct that possibilities for this are better in Europe, in Vienna or Berlin, than in America. I have no major reservations about accepting you. However, I have to point out to you a number of conditions. First, you write that you wish to spend “some time” [sic] with me, but I am only willing to accept analysands for an extended period, at a minimum of six months. Second, it is not possible that I accept you during the summer, The analysis could not start before October 1st. Third, as you certainly know, I am fairly old and not too well, and can’t predict to what extent I shall be able to continue my activities next fall. This should be no deterrent to you to realize your purpose, even if you might have to select somebody else in Vienna, Berlin, or Budapest.
With friendly [kollegialem] greeting
Your Freud
[Handwritten by Sigmund Freud, in English.]
Aug 10th 1926 Vienna [imprinted on stationery]
Semmerig
Dear Dr Lehrman
I see you are a true American bent on having your will and sparing no means to that end. I cannot imagine what your interest may be in seeing me. I am no great sight an old man who has been very ill and lives in retirement. However if you cannot renounce your desire, you may call on me any of the next days on 5h 30 in the afternoon, where I am most likely to be at home and free. Sincerely yours Freud
195
196
197