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As has often been said, psychoanalysis depends more than any other science on the work and genius of one man. Hence psychoanalysts must welcome eagerly all reliable information about the life and thought of Sigmund Freud, not excluding his death and his attitudes to death and illness. Even Ernest Jones's magnificent biography could not possibly cover the whole ground; moreover it would have been relatively colourless had it been totally free of bias.
In Freud: Living and Dying Max Schur, now alas dead, has made important additions to Jones's account, together with a few corrections. His situation as Freud's personal physician from 1928 to 1939 gave him wonderful opportunity for first-hand observation, but at the same time it presented him with a dilemma in professional ethics. Has a doctor the right to reveal matters that he has learned by reason of his professional relationship? It has, of course, been done before, and a notable case was that of Winston Churchill. Lord Moran certainly did not escape censure in some quarters, but probably the consensus was that in the case of a man who has made history, future historians should not be deprived of such information. A similar argument may be applied to Schur's work, the more so since what he has to tell us can only add to our respect and veneration for Freud.
This is a long book, full of fascinating detail; one can draw attention only to a very few salient points. Schur addresses himself in large measure to the discussion of Freud's physical health, his attitude to death and his theories about it, and the last 183 pages are devoted to Freud's cancer and death. Schur says: … 'any examination of Freud's changing attitude towards illness and death hinged on the evaluation of both his physical symptoms and their intertwining with Freud's self-analysis and his relationship to Fliess'. This relationship is studied in considerable detail, and many hitherto unpublished letters are used. As regards Freud's cardiac s