So far what we know about Freud's analytic work comes from his case histories, his technical papers, and scattered remarks in his correspondence as well as from reports from his analysands. There did not seem to be any documentary evidence that directly reflected Freud's working-day situation. This however, as Christfried Tögel pointed out to me, was not true. He drew my attention to material that had not yet been investigated: Freud's patient calendars, copies of which are in the Freud Museum in London.2 Their existence, as I have subsequently learned, was known to a few insiders but until now they have not been mentioned or used in a publication.3 Tögel generously provided me with copies of them for a first evaluation.

In these calendars Freud made daily entries of which patients he had seen—no more and no less. We can therefore see exactly how many hours a week his patients came and for what period of time. Altogether there are three calendars that cover the decade between October 1910 and December 1920.