The Interwoven Lives of Sigmund, Anna and W. Ernest Freud: Three Generations of Psychoanalysis. (2015) pp xvii+668 By Daniel Benveniste, PhD

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1 The Interwoven Lives of Sigmund, Anna and W. Ernest Freud: Three Generations of Psychoanalysis. (2015) pp xvii+668 By Daniel Benveniste, PhD Review by Jeffrey H. Golland, PhD Daniel Benveniste has produced a massive and complex work. At its core is a biography of a one man, Ernst ( ), the eldest of Sigmund Freud s eight grandchildren, the only one who became a psychoanalyst. It is also a partial biography of Sigmund himself, dating from the birth of this grandchild, and of Anna, a foster mother to Ernst, also his child analyst, and eventually his professional mentor. The book is about their respective psychoanalytic careers and the times in which they lived; it evolves into a psychobiography of Ernst. Benveniste is an accidental biographer, having first sought a meeting with the elderly Ernst to discuss the Fort Da game. Ernst was the toddler observed in Freud s first report of Fort Da (1919 footnote to Freud, 1900, p. 461), an observation that became a part of a major revision of drive theory (1920). Benveniste was pursuing his own interest in the psychology of games. Ernst, like his famous forbears, was reluctant to cooperate in an authorized biography, but a mutual cathexis occurred nearly immediately in their second meeting, when Ernst drafted Daniel for what became a fourteen year labor, apparently one of (mutual) love. This triple biography offers an even greater number of voices than subjects. Benveniste cites many sources in a 23 page bibliography; countless letters among the principals, their friends and acquaintances; and extensive interviews with Ernst, his friends and colleagues, even his exwife and ex brother in law. These are provided as direct quotes and transcriptions in a gray matte background to contrast them with the author s narrative and to provide a greater sense of authenticity. The unusual gray pages provide multiple witnesses to the colorful lives of the three Freuds. Benveniste adds yet another voice, that of Ernst s mother, Sophie Freud Halberstadt, who died of Spanish flu when he was not yet six years old. Sophie kept a baby diary, a fine example of child observation before this became a psychoanalytic practice. Appendices provide the diary translated into English, also transcribed in the original German. Benveniste s singular voice sounds clearly in the last forty pages of this tome, arguing that a case report by Anna (1936), later elaborated as Frank O., (Sandler et al, 1980) was a disguised version of Ernst s child analysis from which Benveniste provides conclusions about Ernst. Benveniste s original interest is discussed in a 27 page appendix: The reel [sic] meaning of Fort Da. A series of photographs, most from Ernst s collection, separates the book s several sections. 1

2 Benveniste asks if W. Ernest Freud merits a biography in his own right, and answers, Absolutely not (p 2). This book is primarily a contribution to the history of psychoanalysis. Its first and longest section focuses on Sigmund Freud s final quarter century of life, years in which he developed his mature theories, and extended them. World history (The Great War, Nazism) is also a major character. The escape and exile of the Freud family reads like a thriller novel, despite general knowledge of these events. Ernst, age 25 at Freud s death, was a victim of fate: his father s wartime absence, his young mother s death while pregnant with a second brother, his favored younger brother s death, his becoming a foster child cared for by relatives. He did poorly at school and seemed without direction in life. It was almost accidental that he was included on the short list to be ransomed from Nazi horror: he was unemployed and living with the Freuds and Burlinghams at Bergasse 19. In England, Ernst served as his grandfather s chauffeur, driving him to medical appointments These 250 pages are thoroughly engaging. They provide an important section on the Hietzing School, founded by Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham for the Burlingham children and the children of friends. Teachers included Erik Erikson, Peter Blos, Sr., and Esther Menaker, one of my first supervisors, then a candidate at the Vienna Institute. This small school and its communal life provide a stunning rebuke to promoting psychoanalysis as prophylactic, and may surprise those unfamiliar with the absence in the pioneering days of therapeutic boundaries now taken for granted. Suicides, neuroses, and interpersonal conflicts are reported within the extended Freud family, and among their analytically oriented friends and acquaintances. Every Hietzing student was in analysis with Anna, including her nephew, who had been her first patient earlier in his life. In a series of cameo appearances, many of Ernst s classmates are profiled several were also interviewed. This method (cameos and interviews) continues throughout the book with scores of Ernst s contacts having their accomplishments noted, while lending their voices to describe that Halberstadt boy and each other. Erikson and Blos get mixed reviews as young teachers. Benveniste s account of the Anschluss and the eventual escape of the Freud family are painfully detailed. Freud s long standing naïveté regarding Nazism, and his stubborn wish to die at home delayed his decision to flee. Benveniste believes Freud s succumbing to the narcissism of minor differences in his concern about Anna s being unwelcome among English Kleinians was a bizarre, blind denial (p 230) of the larger Nazi menace. In physical distress from cancer and multiple surgeries, Freud after age 70 is quoted as feeling he lived too long, though his productive work continued unabated. Defensive? Post Hartmann psychoanalysis would count this a most admirable adaptation. 2

3 Anna Freud is the dominating presence of the second and next longest section (160 pages), though Ernst s adulthood is described in exhaustive detail. Interned enemy alien, marriage and fatherhood, college, adopting the Freud name, starting psychoanalytic training; even his institute curriculum is recorded in full. Slowly emerging from an aimless youth, Ernst made few friends. Among these was Leopold Bellak, a boyhood chum who was making his impressive way in the United States. This relationship, like others, remained at a distance; Ernst s letters to Bellak are admiring and envious. Though identified with his aunt in the Klein Freud split, he felt disrespected by the Anna Freudians, and his psychoanalytic practice did not thrive. His work was mainly at Hampstead, under Anna s aegis. Even in old age, he blamed the jealousy of others for his not living up to his famous (adopted) surname and legacy. Ernst did not find an independent career focus until his late fifties; his sense of identity seemed mature only in his seventies, following his aunt s death. He kept his distance as her health was failing, and conspicuously did not attend her funeral. Ernst lived on for nearly 26 years, 20 of them productive. For these 20, Benveniste dubs him The Lone Wolf, playing on his given name, Ernst Wolfgang, the W mysteriously placed first when he became an Englishman. Those close to him called and spoke of him as Ernst. Major personal markers of this period were divorce, relocation to Germany to take up with a lover, and the accidental death in 1987 of his only child, Colin, from whom he had become nearly estranged. Ernst wrote and lectured internationally about the infant observation research he had begun at Hampstead. He was disappointed in his wish to relocate to the United States when his resume proved insufficient for landing a funded position, despite support from several prominent American analysts. Benveniste remarks on his scholarly productivity: in the two decades following Anna s death, Ernst more than doubled his published output compared with the years at Hampstead. In 2002, shortly after extensive conversations with his biographer, Ernst move into an assisted living facility where he deteriorated physically and mentally for six years, dying at age 94. In his concluding chapter, Benveniste focuses on Oedipal issues (a father at war, a doting mother), loss (the deaths of mother, brother, aunt and son), and sibling rivalry as major themes reflected in Ernst s character. In their conversations, subject and biographer came to see the death of the unborn brother as of deepest significance, reflected ultimately in Ernst s involvement with research on pre and perinatal development. These formulations fit well with the plentiful material provided. Sibling rivalry is also posited as a thread connecting the three generations: Sigmund/Julius, Anna/Sophie, and Ernst/Heinerle. Finally, and primarily with literary references, Benveniste argues for Fort Da as the central theme of Ernst s life, and elaborates in an appendix on Fort Da as an important psychological phenomenon. 3

4 While reading this book, I often thought of personology, Henry Murray s personality theory, grounded in psychoanalysis but also a precursor to contemporary positive psychology. Ernst s life could be judged as one of pathological compromises, a personality disordered in reaction to multiple traumata. That verdict would not adequately reflect the record of evidence provided by this thorough study of his life. Slowed but not overwhelmed by early losses and family instability, Ernst made friends, found love, and achieved meaningful professional success. A patient s memoir speaks of the selfless and sound help he provided as her analyst. His admission to obstetric and neonatal intensive care hospital units though lacking medical or academic doctoral credentials confirmed recognition of his research efforts. Benveniste correctly calls it unfair to compare a child with a brilliant aunt or a genius grandfather. Ernst was a normal neurotic; a contemporary phrase for reasonable adaptation to life s vicissitudes and the human condition. Implicit in the book s title is an attempt to shed light on mechanisms of intergenerational influence through the study of lives, this phrase being the title of a festschrift for Henry Murray (White, 1963) that includes essays by Erikson and Bellak. Benveniste provides more than ample evidence that Ernst s psychoanalyst namesakes had enormous influence over him. Benveniste s conclusions and his discourse on Fort Da are worthy contributions. Specific mechanisms of identification remain an area for further psychoanalytic investigation. Daniel Benveniste has made a major contribution to Freud scholarship. Those interested in the intensive study of individuals will appreciate this report on these lives. The book has recently earned Benveniste well deserved honorary membership in the American Psychoanalytic Association. REFERENCES Freud, A. (1936/1966). The writings of Anna Freud. Vol. 2. The ego and the mechanisms of defense. New York: International Universities Press. Freud, S. (1900/1953). The interpretation of dreams (Part 2). In James Strachey, Ed. & Trans., Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 5. London: Hogarth Press. Freud, S. (1920/1955). Beyond the pleasure principle. In James Strachey, Ed. & Trans., Standard Edition, Vol. 18, Sandler, J., Kennedy, H., & Tyson, R. (1980). The technique of child analysis; Discussions with Anna Freud. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. White, R. (1963). The Study of Lives: Essays on Personality in Honor of Henry A. Murray. New York: Atherton Press. 4

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