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In From Berggasse to Pompeii and Back: Sigmund Freud's Travels in the Past (1989), Christfried Tögel explored the circumstances and geographic extent of Freud's travels, the intellectual relation of his journeys to his interests in archeology and ancient history, and the question of Freud's personal Reisedrang und Reiseangst, that is, his compulsion to travel and the anxiety attendant upon it. Now, with the collaboration of Michael Molnar, Tögel has published a selected chronological transcription of Freud's travel correspondence.
Prior to 1894 almost all of Freud's journeys had been geared to practical purposes rather than tourism, although the experiences were always thickened with pointed observations on cultural or anthropological matters. But the editors here have concentrated on the travels that Freud undertook for pleasure, and made available the letters he sent home to his wife and family from 1895 to 1923. Most, though not all, of these letters were sent from Italy, and as such they belong to the Grand-Tour phenomenon as it was practiced around the turn of the twentieth century.
Tögel has prefaced each set of letters with a brief introductory essay as to the significance of the relevant period in the context of Freud's psychoanalytic research and world historical events. He also provides itineraries and maps of the routes traveled. A chronological overview listing all of the letters and postcards is appended, along with bibliography and index. One hundred fifty-two small (rather poorly printed) black and white illustrations are integrated into the text: these consist of characteristic views and reproductions of works of art, some of which are actually taken from photographs purchased by Freud during the recounted travels.