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Daniel Benveniste's Interwoven Lives tells the life story of W. Ernest Freud, born Ernst Halberstadt, and his relationship with his famous grandfather, Sigmund Freud, and his aunt, Anna Freud. The book spans a century of psychoanalytic history, from the dawn of psychoanalysis preceding Ernst's birth in 1914, through his death in 2008. Benveniste draws the reader into a deep and complex study of the least known of the three Freuds, Ernst, whose life unfolded against the backdrop of the loss of his most significant attachments: the larger-than-life figures of his grandfather and Aunt Anna and his mother, Sophie Halberstadt (née Freud), who died when he was quite young.
Interwoven Lives is a scholarly and meticulously researched labor of love—for the author's psychoanalytic forebears, for psychoanalysis, and indeed for Benveniste's main subject, Ernst, the only grandchild of Sigmund Freud to become a psychoanalyst. The book offers an alluring view of the golden era of psychoanalysis. Peopled by the heroes and heroines of our field, the book offers a window onto a period of remarkable psychological breakthroughs, unfolding against the backdrop of one of the darkest moments in history. Its discoveries, its nuances, and the stories that emerge shine a light on the foundational elements of what we now know as psychoanalysis. Indeed, so rich and engrossing are Benveniste's anecdotes and analyses of the Freud family that as I wrote this review I had to refrain from giving away too much of the story!
Interwoven Lives serves multiple purposes: it is a psychological portrait of a life of extremes, an historical overview of the new field, an examination of a complex sociopolitical era, and a study of the relationships among members of the Freud family. The depth and breadth of