The Death of Sigmund Freud: The Legacy of His Last Days

by Mark Edmundson

A dramatic revisiting of Freud's escape from Nazi-occupied Vienna , his final days on earth, and his most controversial work― Moses and Monotheism .

When Hitler invaded Vienna in March of 1938, Sigmund Freud, old and desperately ill, was among the city's 175,000 Jews dreading Nazi occupation. The Nazis hated Sigmund Freud with a particular they detested his "soul-destroying glorification of the instinctual life." Here Mark Edmundson traces Hitler and Freud's oddly converging lives, then zeroes in on Freud's last two years, during which, with the help of Marie Bonaparte, he was at last rescued from Vienna and brought safely to London. There he was honored as he never had been during his long, controversial life. At the same time he endured the last of more than thirty operations for cancer of the jaw. Confronting certain death, Freud, in typical fashion, did not let fame make him complacent, but instead wrote his most provocative book, Moses and Monotheism , in which he questioned the legacy of the greatest Jewish leader. Focusing on Freud's last two years, Edmundson is able to probe Freud's ideas about death, and also about the human proclivity to embrace fascism in politics and fundamentalism in religion. Edmundson suggests new and important ways to view Freud's legacy, at a time when these forces are once again shaping world events.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, Memoir

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely bowled over. Here is the letter I wrote to the author, Mark Edmundson:

Dear Professor Edmundson,

I recently read Elisabeth Roudinesco's book on Freud, in which she referred to yours on Freud's death.  I have just finished reading it and am so bowled over.  I have long had a feeling of affinity for Freud without quite knowing why--nor having ever studied Freud in any serious way.  My age (69) and the current state of the world (and retirement, I suppose), have led me to try to understand, in a less haphazard way, the mysteries of existence and other mysteries such as the election of Donald Trump and his command over so many people, in and out of government.

Your book has contributed more to my sense of understanding something of these varied strands than anything I have read in a long time.   I have had a hunch about Freud's thought, that although he meant it to be scientific it was art, literature, philosophy.  I also perceived that he was never of less than two minds about his ideas however much he might protest--which is a quality I share and appreciate.  As you say, about reading Freud, that he brought to his ideas "irony, humor, detachment, and due openness," as his writings changed and evolved. 

The ideas about Fascism, its "emphatic eye-intensity" and mass rallies, and gold-plated elevators all make so much sense out of Trump-era, as well as the notion that peace is boring, tedious and than we humans harbor a great sense of deprivation that needs to be filled with intoxications.  "The hero of civilization ... knows how to live with the anxiety that conflicting and unresolved wishes bring and he takes this anxiety as a condition of life, rather than as something for which he needs to find a personal or cultural remedy."  I also find so fruitful the discussion of authority, both positive and toxic, the need to discriminate between the two, and the need for a new kind of authority, for a hero of sublimation, who is "a divided being who achieves his authority not be being self-willed and appetitive, but by intelligently rechanneling his impulses and teaching others to do the same."

The story your book tells is vivid and heartbreaking--Freud's sisters destroyed by the Nazis, the hole in Freud's jaw.  But also funny:  I loved the encounter between Dali and Freud.  In the end, I find so much to admire in Freud and feel a great--if not transferential--affection for him.  I will be working through these ideas for a while.  Thank you for a marvelous book.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a readable memoir of Freud in the last two years of his life. He flees Vienna reluctantly as the Nazis take power and relocates to England. I enjoyed the book for the glimpse it provided of Freud and his relationships with friends and family, his marvelous work ethic and bravery regarding his (not always spot-on) ideas.
The author does a lot of "While Freud was ailing, Hitler was triumphing," and "As cancer ate Freud's face, Hitler was basking in high approval ratings." This struck a tin note sometimes, it being preposterous to compare Freud with Hitler in any way. Yes they were contemporaries, and yes Freud was an expert on authority figures and subconscious urges. I suppose the nature of this book made this parallelism difficult to avoid, but it was awkward.
My other peeve was Edmundson's calling the superego the "over-I." Is this the fashion now? Make it go away.
A quick, informative and occasionally fascinating read.
3.5 stars.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book this afternoon. It just took two or three days, although I'm not usually such a fast reader. It's very clear, readable, but also highly intelligent and original. What many people know already but Edmundson highlights brilliantly is that Freud's writings should be approached with an open, inquisitive mind. The reverence and violent hate simultaneously directed toward Freud since his death, Edmundson points out, are both products of a sort of broad cultural transference. Some people love Freud because he is fatherly, that is, while other people hate him because he's a patriarch. While we must not be servile in our approach to Freud, Edmundson argues, neither should we denigrate his work as if it had no value. In fact, Freud has had a liberating, democratizing influence because he encourages us to overcome our adulation of patriarchal authority. In fact, his analytical sessions provided a way of teaching that nurtured individual dignity rather than servitude toward an authority figure. I loved Edmundson's book. My only problem was with his not-infrequent suggestions that "democracies" such as the U.S. and England have historically been less susceptible to tyranny and father-worship. It's just not true, sadly.

[Radhika Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely stunning book. Every page was wrought with information that I am sure I could not have received from anywhere else. Or at least not in the form that I consumed via this book.

Edmundson traces the the last two years of Freud’s life and its intersection with the rise of Hitler. He uses Freud’s science to explain the reasons behind why the masses were/are so enamoured by authoritative and patriarchal figures. Through explanations rendered by Freud, Edmundson sheds a light on the need for a hero of civilisation who can fight the fascist leader.

There's quite a lot of misconceptions regarding Freud; a few of his theories have been discredited. He is also very misogynistic. But, there is no doubt that he is the Father of Psychoanalysis. One must read this to understand the political and religious undercurrents in the 21st Century and where it all stems from.

[Willem van der Scheun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had been lying around for two years, but our recent visit to Vienna seemed like a good reason to read it. And it proved to be a remarkable book about Freud's last two years (1938-1939) from the period of the German Anschluss to his death in London. It not only tells the story of his and his families flight and fight, but it also gives a good introduction to some of his thoughts on authority, relating to totalitarianism, tyranny and fundamentalism. It inspires me to go read his very last book, Moses and Monotheism, which is waiting to be read for many, many years on the bookshelf holding most of Freud's works.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

From BBC radio 4 - Book of the Week:
4 Extra Debut. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud is beset by illness, and the threat of Hitler invading Austria.

[Loraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book as I am out of my comfort zone here. In my lifetime I've been aware of experts' vastly differing opinions on Freud's legacy and so I have never cared nor even attempted to dabble in Freudian theory or psychoanalysis.

That said, I could not help but be infected by the author's respect for the man and his work. He seems to have cherry-picked just the right elements to make this an interesting narrative.

The story of Freud and his family living in Vienna at the time of the Anschluss is, for me, the most enlightening. His family lived the Jewish experience brought by the Nazis, (think Good Living Street), but Freud himself, because of his study of human nature and mob behaviour, was not surprised or disillusioned, neither was he hopeful that any of this would pass in his lifetime. We get just enough of his theory to understand that fascism and fundamentalism are part of the human experience and will likely show up over and over again for as long as we exist. The best line in the book comes from Freud's clear vision of just who is the Gestapo, which allowed him humour in a very dark time.

After Vienna, we see Freud, the man, who has had to start over, albeit not exactly from zero. He is an old man with a painful cancer, still working, still smoking, still writing and agitating. I found it all quite fascinating, and when the author picked elements from Freud's last, very controversial work, Moses and Monotheism, I actually was grateful for the insight provided.

Basically the author translated Freud for me into terms I can appreciate, never overwhelming or droning on to boredom. He mixed this with history and biography to make a reading that is very memorable.

[Mazola1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book focuses on the last two years of Freud's life, when he was old, riddled with the cancer that would kill him, and the Nazis were taking over Austria, forcing him to flee from Vienna to London. Freud had gret insight into human nature, including the dark side of human nature that makes dictators like Hitler possible, and perhaps inevitable. Still, in the face of great adversity, he persisted in his work, finishing his last and most controversial book shortly before his death. While his view of human nature might be cause for pessimism, his belief that self awareness can make our lives a little happier can also be seen as cause for optimism. In this, as in other ways, Freud is a study in contrasts. Known for his scandalous ideas and emphasis on the sexual, he nonetheless led the most conventional of lives, and was probably celibate for the last several decades of his life. This book and the picture it paints of Freud sheds light on what it means to come to terms with our mortality and limitations.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edmundson's biography of Freud intertwines his later years when Hitler takes over Vienna - the city where Freud lives. Freud is a Jew by birth and one of the early well known psychoanalysts. He relates those years when Freud and his family's life was in constant peril as Jews. Although Freud is well educated in Judaism, he is not active in that religion. During his years as an psychoanalyst, Freud wrote extensively of the need of a God figure in mankinds mind. He writes some very compelling arguments regarding the development of the idea of God in the Book religions. Edmundson writes a 10 page theory on these points at the end of the book that to me was the most thought provoking part of the book.
The last couple of decades of Freud's life were fraught with a continuous battle of cancer in his jaw and mouth that were induced by a lifelong love of cigars. What he dealt with in the 1920-30 years in terms of treatment and surgery is a far cry from what we have today.

[Dzimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vivid depiction of Freud's last days and the important people who populated his later life. A sympathetic portrayal of a highly controversial figure. It's a quick read. Gives enough political/historical context to ground Freud's individual story in the story of his time without getting bogged down. Does a nice job highlighting the boldness and tectonic originality of Freud's thinking. Puts Freud's ideas in an intuitive, literary language that will make sense to any thoughtful reader. Focus is definitely on Freud the cultural critic rather than Freud the clinician, appropriate as his writing increasingly shifted in that direction later in his career. Flaws: A bit fluffier and repeated some ideas early on; book seemed to find its stride as it progressed.

[Sue Pit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book juxtaposes Freud with Hitler interestingly. Obviously, Hitler affected the last times of Freud as his actions effected a need for a change of Freud's location in his latter years. I had just recently seen the off-broadway production of "Freud's Last Session" which is a fictional portrayal of Freud meeting with C.S. Lewis in England. Excellent production, btw, and very shortly thereafter I saw this book in the Atticus bookstore and it regarded the same (roughly) time frame as that portrayed in the play (thus seeming quite timely and the right book to snatch from the bargain shelves). I am glad I bought/read it. I found it to be quite interesting and a fast read. Truly just a snapshot of that time, but a most intriguing one.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

BBC 4 Extra Debut.


1. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud is beset by illness, and the threat of Hitler invading Austria.
2. The Nazis enter Freud's house, and he fears for his family as interrogations begin
3. Freud faces more demands from the Nazis - can he escape to freedom before it's too late. The great psychiatrist's final years
4. Freud is installed in St John's Wood in London, and Salvador Dali comes to tea. The great psychiatrist's final years
5. Freud prepares for his final publishing success, and the return of a mortal foe - cancer. The great psychiatrist's last years

[Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting inter-weaving of Freud's last years, including his escape from Vienna in the aftermath of the Nazi take-over with his views on the human need for 'strong' leaders/gods. Reading this with Steven Pinker's 'The Blank Slate', which also posits the view that violence and religiosity are innate to human nature, provided a grim, but fascinating, psychological angle to Pinker's genetic picture. Tangentially, the book also includes one of the best paeans to smoking I've ever come across.

[Tripmastermonkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

part biography, part discussion of freud's ideas on authoritarianism, part critique, part defense of freud, it's enjoyable. in the background is hitler, his rise to power, and how freud's ideas in some ways predicted this, and in some ways didn't. very "pop academic". a bit repetitive at moments... altogether a quick read and a fun return to reading about psychology which i haven't done in a long time.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first 100 or so pages pale in comparison with the last 140. In the shadow of Hitler annexing Austria Freud leaves for London. This book elucidates Freud's understanding of why both fascism and religious fundamentalism hold attraction. I think this is an important book

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! I've enjoyed it so very much! Highly recommended!

[Ganimarepublic · Rating 4 out of 5]

İnsanların tiranlardan etkilenmesinin, onlara boyun eğmekle kalmayıp, onlara saygı ve sevgi duymalarının sebebini açıklamaya hayatını adamış bir adam: Freud.
Onunla aynı zamanda Viyana'da yaşamış bir tiran, bir ucube, bir aşağılık kompleksli eciş büçüş birey: Hitler. (Aryan idealini savunan kişinin kendisinin çirkin, kısa boylu, esmer, tipsiz bir cüce olması ironisi)
1909'un sonbaharında Viyana'da karşılaşsalar, Freud'un Hitler'i bir sokak faresi gibi görüp acıması muhtemel. Hitler ise, kendinde olmayan her şeyden nefret eden bir küçük insan olarak, Freud'a hiddet duyardı.
Naziler neden Freud'dan nefret ettiler? Bütün hayatını gelenekçi bir burjuva olarak geçiren Freud, nasıl oldu da Hitler gibi bir kifayetsize bütün iyi kalpli almanların boyun egeceğini tahmin etti? En güçlü arzumuzun hükmedilmek olduğunu bilen, bu şüpheye kapılmayan buyurgan adam, faşizmin kökenlerinin insanın çok derinlerinde olduğunu nereden çıkardı?

Kıyıda köşede kalmış, dikkat çekmeyen bir kitap gibi duran bu eser, Freud'un son yıllarını ve avrupa'da gelişen faşizmi, insan topluluklarının nasıl çalmaya, yağmaya, şiddete, kısacası uygarlıktan uzak her şeye nasıl teşne olduğunu anlatıyor.

[Adam Falkenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable book with many insights. I was let down only by the very end of the book when the author suggests that a sizable group of people in the US, who want a theocracy, is one of the grave threats of our time. Yea, no. The truth threat in this country are the authoritarian left woke elite. Everyone can see it clearly now if they use their brains.

[Kenny Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I freaking loved this book. It accomplished the author's main goal, which is to get me interested in taking another look at Freud. It felt so much more relevant now than when it would have felt in 2007.

[Bασίλης Τσιρώνης · Rating 5 out of 5]

Σπουδαίο ανάγνωσμα!

[Jack Freud · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book I ever really read about Freud , was a great introduction into the kind of person he was in his home life and how he saw other great minds of the time

[Cep Subhan KM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Composed in a novelistic style, I enjoy my reading. It seems that it is presented as a book of thought but I think it is more appropriate for me to place it as a biography. The impressive thing found in the book is started from the beginning: it compares the life of Sigmund Freud with Adolf Hitler in an amazing way.

[Nurith Horak · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting and well writing

[Pete F · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book a few years ago now and at the time reviewed it on my blog. Here is the text of that review, almost verbatim. Freud lived and worked in Vienna, but as a Jew he was about to have his life turned upside-down by Adolf Hitler's annexation of Austria, the Anschluss, in 1938. Freud was old and ill with advanced cancer of the jaw, the result of years of cigar-smoking which he felt unable to give up, and he might easily have ended up the same way as many other Jews did under Nazi occupation - in a concentration camp

But Freud had influential friends and supporters who were able to help him emigrate to England, although it was not without risk. But Freud and his immediate family were safely brought to England in May 1938 and he lived out the last 16 months or so of his life in Hampstead, where he continued his work thinking and writing.

While in London he finished what was one of his most controversial works: Moses and Monotheism, which while being Jewish himself, albeit a secular Jew, brought accusations of anti-semitism. In it, Freud claimed that Moses was actually an Egyptian, not Jewish as is generally believed, and that therefore, monotheistic religion, usually considered to have been a Jewish invention, was an Egyptian invention. Freud was generally dismissive of religion, especially the great monotheistic traditions, believing it to be a sickness of the psyche, a throwback to an earlier stage of emotional development in which the child relied on the father for his security.

The story of Freud's last days in Vienna and London is told alongside that of Hitler's consolidation of power, the two accounts interweaving. Freud's works had a lot to say about authority figures and father substitutes, and his theories, then and now, are relevant to the rise of fascism and fundamentalism. Freud's interests were wide-ranging including archaeology, classical mythology, antiques, art, Shakespeare and the poetry of Milton as well as his specialised discipline of psychoanalysis. One might describe him as an archaeologist of the mind, who used psychoanalysis to dig up old, forgotten layers of the mind, stuff from the past, which was holding his patients back and causing sickness. Not only were his ideas relevant to individuals, his far-reaching ideas had relevance for society, a society in which huge numbers of people virtually worshipped an authority figure, who made them feel secure. An extremely worrying thought for us in the 21st century because fascism has not gone away, and fundamentalist religion and politics are, if anything, on the rise.

Although I already knew that Freud safely escaped Austria before I read the book, I found this book gripping and fascinating. I don't necessarily hold with many of Freud's ideas about human motivations, as I think there are other things that motivate humans other than sex and power, but he has had a huge influence on our culture and thinking whether we acknowledge it or not. Freud managed to escape the Nazis, thousands of other Jews in Vienna and millions elsewhere were not so lucky.

[Chrisl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quotes from Edmundson:

“America: there was no nation that Sigmund Freud disliked more … Freud never ceased to detest the country. To him, America represented a social catastrophe nearly as dire as the one embodied by the Nazis … Virtually everything he knew—or thought he knew—about the United States irritated Sigmund Freud.

“Americans, first off, were obsessed by money. Everyone … was dully materialistic, without cultivation, without subtlety, without the capacity to enjoy life’s higher pleasures.

“Freud even castigated American love affairs … for being slight and fleeting … Because … they didn’t activate the old parental prototypes—there was nothing deeply Oedipal, that is, ambivalent, tormented, strange—about their erotic encounters.

“But what most disturbed Freud America was its politics. Americans suffered from … ‘psychological poverty of groups’ … a nation where the group tended to rule over, and often to crush, the individual. Not only did America always teeter close to mob rule; it was doomed to mediocrity because the lowest common denominator would always prevail … there was no room for true leaders.

“Ever attentive to the sadistic side of humanity, Freud believed that even the most apparently civilized people nurse fantasies of violence, rape, and plunder. To Freud, we are all in our hearts criminals.

“Human beings … are addicted to authority and often to destructive authority at that. Frequently our strongest desire … is to find a figure who will control our desires. We wish to be dominated. We wish to submit.

“Freud, one might say, was a patriarch who worked with incomparable skill to deconstruct patriarchy. He wrote and lived to put an end to the kind of authority that he himself quite often embodied and exploited.

“When it comes to describing human beings at their best, Freud has little to say.

“Freud once remarked that the objective of psychoanalysis was to transform hysterical misery into common, everyday unhappiness. In saying so, he exhibited not only his personal temperament, but also his thinking’s bandwidth. Freud is a superb student of misery and unhappiness, but about what makes life worth living, he has surprisingly little to say.

“Freud’s work also predicts the new birth of the fundamentalist urge … the rise of ferociously patriarchal religions, not only in Islam, but in the Christian world as well.

“Freud indicates … we are all fascists, we are all fundamentalist, at least potentially. Through authoritarianism we attain assurance and happiness …

Four or even five stars for information - no stars for Freud

[Ralph Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are times when you watch a film or read a book and by its end, you have to sit back and take a deep breath aware you have been affected by something profound. This is one such work. Mark Edmundson follows the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, as he trudges through his twilight days and watches with misery the rise of the primal, half-beast figure he predicted: Adolf Hitler. In a way, this is a Frankenstein story in which the monster is a true monster without any redeeming features and the creator, wholly innocent, unaware of what he has created until it is kicking down his door. The book does not suggest Freud was responsible for Hitler but it does state he predicted him, this personification of id, of rage, and we feel Freud’s agony as we read. The book admirably distances us from Hitler referring to him as “He”, making the nazi even more into a shadow flickering about in our nightmares. The gut-wrenching horror of Freud watching Hitler devastate Austria and its Jews makes this a deeply sad book as well as a terrifying one. In a way, as Freud and his genius had thought of Hitler, predicted him, before Hitler even thought of himself, Freud got the last laugh. But in a way, there’s a sense of forlornness and hopelessness as Freud’s intellectual Austria is swept away by Hitler’s mindless rage.

[Paul Loong · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book because it claims that it traces some very interesting link between Freud and Hitler. I am let down. It has far fewer links than it claims. In fact, the book just tells you the last years of Freud, with some historical facts of what Hitler was doing at the same time. There is not much analysis on the behavior of Nazi, which is what I expect what the link should be. Maybe I've just misunderstood.

Furthermore, the talk about Fascism and Rise of Fundamentalism is only mentioned in the last pages in the book, which I think is not too much to be put as the subtitle. I notice that there is another book from the same author with the title 'Death of Sigmund Freud: The Legacy of His Last Days'. If they are the same book, the latter title is a more suitable one.

However, if we just ignore such expectations, it is still a good read, especially for the first part on how Freud has escaped from Vienna when the Nazi started to 'clear' the Jews, and the last pages on the fascism and fundamentalism.

[Max]

Fascinating investigation of Freud's final days, his family, and his thoughts on religion and authority. I'm not certain that the biographical interludes focusing on Hitler, though chilling in their own right, add much to the project. I reserve judgment on that score, though. This might be one of those structures that grows more stable in memory.

That said, as someone much more familiar with Jung's work than Freud's, I enjoyed adding more detail to my very loose impression of Freud's thought.

[Kim]

I haven't touched this book yet - the topic doesn't even strike me as that intersting - but I am very fond of Edmundson's writing style and am captivated by his philosophies. That said, it can't hurt to learn a little more about Mr. Sigmund Freud.