Freud and the Use of Iconography in Curating his Public Profile

Visual images of Freud abound in popular and psychoanalytic culture, though they have been largely bypassed without scrutiny in the literature. This neglect obscures a proper understanding of this important part of psychoanalytic iconography and in particular the genesis of Freud’s drive (and that of early colleagues and other key stakeholders) to promote “brand-Freud” and psychoanalysis locally, nationally, and internationally. Offering the first in-depth exploration of this topic, the present article considers Freud’s relation to his imaging, the functions of this in promoting recognition and affiliation, and the key curated “official” forms this took during the period from 1906 to 1939. In doing so, close scrutiny is paid to Freud’s imaging in three domains: the 1906 medal by Carl Schwerdtner, Max Halberstadt’s photographs, and selected portraits and sculptures, noting in each case how these images were disseminated in the psychoanalytic literature and as material objects. In the process of doing this, the paper reveals an underappreciated mechanism in the propagation of psychoanalysis and some of the vital functions such imaging served.