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The extended Bernays-Freud clans were multi-related. Disentangled segments of two of their familial components—except for Minna Bernays—ultimately settled upon opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Each male “head of household” and his wife as well as at least two of their legitimate offspring achieved worldwide eminence within their respective spheres of life. One was the eldest son of the Bernays couple; another was the youngest daughter of the Freud couple.
Ely Bernays contributed to the welfare of orphanages in New York and Vienna; Sigmund Freud has been characterized as the founder of psychoanalysis. Firstly, this paper focuses upon mettlesome sibling rivalries accentuated by a palpable enmity pervading each of the cited personages in their respective roles as an insular clan-leader within a disjointed extended-familial constellation.
The philanthropic pursuits of one generation clearly raised complicated emotions for the next. Ely's sympatico may have been fraught with shame for his publicist-son. For Sigmund, the extent to which he accepted “reduced-fee” arrangements for certain of his so-called “patient-pupils” and provided gratis monetary support the “Wolf Man” became problematic.
Ely presumably provided support for his wife's aging parents; Sigmund—his parents, wife as well as a ‘live-in’ sister-in-law—intermittently served as primary care-takers for two of the Bernays's daughters while the others in this branch of their main family migrated to America.
Lastly, the “Anna” factor manifested itself in the senior entanglements of the extended Freud family and beyond. Sigmund, throughout his life viewed himself as having been victimized by his like-named surviving younger sibling. Prophetically, perhaps, he named his own daughter Anna as a specific legatee while ‘skipping’ her other siblings and designating their lineal descendants as the residual beneficiaries or ‘remaindermen’ who collectively inherited the rest of his earthly and future assets.