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The eight-part German-Austrian series ‘Freud’ is a curiosity. One might wonder who it was made for - its intended audience - or who has actually watched it and why. Reviewing the first episode, the Guardian on 23 March 2020 called it ‘ridiculous’. Anyone anticipating a ‘serious’ examination of Freud's early work and career might well think the same. Not for Freud afficianadoes then? I turned up the series through the browser and started to watch out of curiosity about how Freud, the man and the work, would be portrayed. I stayed to binge the rest, finding it a surprising and somewhat guilty pleasure. It is bloody and dirty, sickening, farcical, touching, even very funny in parts. It is preposterous, over-the-top, revolting quite often, but it is not stupid. What you know about film and televisual genres and indeed what you know about Freud will probably determine how much you like or loathe it, or whether you can watch to the end.
Freud is the central character in this story, which is fictional, extravagant, gory, bawdy and extreme in several registers. It is knowing, sometimes witty, opulent in some of its settings, dripping with blood and damp in others - steamy and sleazy. Its hospital or asylum scenes are stark white or dank in their unfeelingness. Even the most credulous of viewers, recognizing ‘Freud’ as a famous name but perhaps having only the vaguest notions of what he wrote or did, would be unlikely to believe this as a ‘true’ story of that man Freud. The style of the presentation militates against such a fatuous acceptance at every twist and turn. And yet, this rollicking yarn, this confection, is not entirely unfaithful to what is known - what some of us have made it our business to know - about Sigmund Freud. So, for those in the know, provided you can ‘go with it’ what you know can add to the pleasure of this entertainment - but do not expect to feel clean.
What ‘we’ know about Freud comes from what he wrote and what others have written about him and his