Freud: Master and Friend [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9780674422568, 9780674428430

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F R E U D , M A S T E R AND F R I E N D

LONDON: HUMPHREY

MILFORD

O X F O R D U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS

FREUD Master and Friend By HANNS SACHS

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

Harvard University Press 1944

COPYRIGHT,

1944

B Y THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD

COLLEGE

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

AUTHOR'S NOTE The group picture of " The Seven Rings " was taken in Berlin in

IQ22

by a professional photographer, the arrange-

ment for it having been made by Dr. Max Eitingon.

Of

the persons represented in the picture only Dr. Ernest Jones and the author are still among the living. The two pictures of "Freud in his Study" fondling his chow dogs and " Freud in his Summer Place " with his two dogs are by the renowned photographer Mr. Hans Caspasius, formerly in Berlin and now in London. The snap-shot of Freud at his desk, " Freud in his Last Days," was given to the author with the information that it was probably the last picture taken before his death. The translations from the German, prose as well as verse, have all been done by the author, who, as mentioned in the pages of this book, has always been fond of this sort of work. H. S.

CONTENTS I. What and Why II. Vienna

3 18

III. First Acquaintance

39

IV. " That due of many now is thine alone"

67

V. "A considerable protuberance " VI. In the Arena VII. All I Know about Him VIII. The Seven Rings IX. The Parting

89 112 124 153 175

ILLUSTRATIONS FREUD IN HIS LAST DAYS

(frontispiece)

FREUD IN HIS STUDY

72

THE SEVEN RINGS

Rank, Abraham, Eitingon, Jones, Freud, Ferenczi, Sachs FREUD IN HIS SUMMER PLACE

156

186

FREUD,

M A S T E R AND F R I E N D

CHAPTER I

What and Why s book will tell about the founder of psychoanalysis, whom I knew intimately from the early stages of his new science until the time of his death. It does not purport to be anything like a full and rounded biography. For such a task several things would be needed which are not at my disposal, among them the wish to undertake it. This book will not be concerned with delineating his science, nor even first and foremost with the scientist, but with Freud, my master and friend. In a certain sense this could be called a piece of my autobiography since it concerns the personality of the man who was, and still is, a part — and certainly the most important and absorbing part — of my life. The rest of my life, whatever I may think of it, would hardly seem important to the world in general. My first opening of the Traumdeutung (Interpretation of Dreams) was the moment of destiny for me — like meeting the "femme fatale," only with a decidedly more favorable result. Up to that time I had been a young man who was supposedly studying law but not living up to the supposition — a type common enough among the middle class in Vienna at the turn of the century. When I had finished the book, I had found the one thing worth while for me to live for; many years 3

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FREUD, MASTER AND FRIEND

later I discovered that it was also the only thing I could live by. Freud, when I had met him in person, was the great event and adventure of my life. The milestones I see when I look back on my past are the different stages of our mutual relations and my responses to his new discoveries and ideas. Nearly everything else that happened on my way through life, however deeply I was moved by it, has now become a memory, a curious something that is blood of my blood and bone of my bone, yet with a touch of strangeness, as if I had gone through the experience on another planet. But things that concern Freud have a different character. They are now what they were before —• my most vivid experiences. They belong to me still in the same way as they did when I lived through them long ago. Calling this book my autobiography does not imply that I will steal into the limelight. Quite the contrary; for a long time I rejected with indignation the idea of writing about Freud in any other than a strictly impersonal vein. I did not like the idea of joining the ranks of those dwarfs who boast of their friendship with a giant — a friendship that often progresses in intimacy when the giant is dead. Then one day (it really happened in one day) I looked around and became aware that of those who had formed his intimate circle of disciples and had enjoyed the opportunity to live for many years near enough to his place of residence for

WHAT AND WHY

5

permanent personal contact, I was the sole survivor. I saw my responsibility and accepted it. Another person exists who had still better opportunities for observation and whose relations with Freud were incomparably more intimate: his youngest daughter, Anna. I am sure that in the midst of her present work, while she is sheltering the bodies and souls of the war-stricken children in London, to whom she devotes all her time and energy, she feels the same responsibility and will meet it in good time. But at the period of my close association with Freud (1909-1918) she was still too young for the collaboration that later fell to her share. For the writing of a full and competent biography her cooperation will be indispensable. She has everything needed for it: the data and the documents, the ability and the energy. My book is not based on research. It does not attempt to open historic perspectives. It tells what happened under my eyes and describes it in the way it impressed itself on my memory; it will especially report what Freud said, when and how. Speaking in the first person I wish to appear rather as a faithful recorder than as an actor who played his part on the scene; I do not intend to go out of the way to tell about my own doings and opinions. This will be easy since the shadow cast by his personality is so much longer than my own that it covers it almost entirely and makes it invisible.

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FREUD, MASTER AND FRIEND

I have mentioned that, becoming aware of my responsibility, I was moved to writing. This is the duty to posterity of all those who have known the manner of living and the intimate personal traits of a great man. Who would not wish to earn the gratitude which all the world feels due to those who took the trouble to note down day by day Luther's Table-talks (Tischgespräche) or to Eckermann for his Conversations with Goethe (