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In the history of psychoanalysis, Freud's alleged sexual relationship with his sister-in-law Minna Bernays and Jung's alleged affair with Sabina Spielrein have become sensations, driving debates among defenders and doubters and spawning a considerable literature. Barry G. Gale's two books about Freud and Minna are a recent contribution to this genre.
Belle Vue, the earlier and lesser of the books, is called “a novel” on the dust jacket, but reads more like the script of a play. The author, a Ph.D. in history and philosophy of science from the University of Chicago, studied for two years with Bruno Bettelheim, who was on the faculty there. The book consists of rambling imaginary conversations, all taking place on July 24, 1895, between historical and invented dramatis personae, including Minna, her mother Emmeline (who “wore a pair of Cartier garnet earrings with bracelet to match” [p. 7]), and Freud and his wife Martha. Gale has Minna saying to Freud: “Sigmund, the time we spent together at the Schweizerhaus, it was the greatest time of my life” (p. 45), even though that event occurred in 1898, three years after this fictional conversation (see Lothane 2015).
In the second book's “About the Author,” we learn that Gale “taught at Cambridge (as a National Science Foundation Fellow) and Johns Hopkins University (at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International