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This short article is about a curious, marginal episode in Sigmund Freud's life and accompanies a letter from him to Eva Rosenfeld, published below.1 The letter describes Freud's feelings about the demise of his dog and offers some solace to Rosenfeld in whose care the creature had been when it disappeared and died. The dog, called Lün Yu, usually known simply as Lün, was a female black chow, who came into his possession in June 1928.2 In Freud: A Life for our Time Peter Gay recounts how this animal arrived in the Freud household, but he did not dwell upon the tale of how Lün died, to which we will come below.
A friend in London, Ruth Klauber Brook, showed me the letter, written by Freud, and explained how she had acquired it many years ago, probably in the early 1970s. It was a cherished present. That letter had been gifted to her and her late husband, the psychoanalyst John Klauber, by his former analyst, Eva Rosenfeld.3 Intrigued by the hand-written message – one primarily of forgiveness – and by Ruth Klauber Brook's recollections of Eva, I started to
I am grateful to Ruth Klauber Brook and her family for permission to reproduce their letter here, as well as for her personal memories, generously shared with the author; to Michael Molnar for deciphering Freud's writing and clarifying crucial details; and Matt ffytche for encouraging me to write about this letter here and providing sage editorial advice.
There is some confusion over the spelling of these names, by the Freud family and others, including Lun Yu, without the umlaut, and Lun Yug.
A copy of the letter is also to be found and has since been digitized in 'Sigmund Freud Papers: General Correspondence, 1871–1996; Rosenfeld, Eva, 1929–1930, 1937, with a cover note by her, 1956', Sigmund Freud Papers, Library of Congress. This material can be accessed online at: .
DANIEL PICK is a psychoanalyst and historian. He is on the advisory board of Psychoanalysis and Histor
I am grateful to Ruth Klauber Brook and her family for permission to reproduce their letter here, as well as for her personal memories, generously shared with the author; to Michael Molnar for deciphering Freud's writing and clarifying crucial details; and Matt ffytche for encouraging me to write about this letter here and providing sage editorial advice.
There is some confusion over the spelling of these names, by the Freud family and others, including Lun Yu, without the umlaut, and Lun Yug.
A copy of the letter is also to be found and has since been digitized in 'Sigmund Freud Papers: General Correspondence, 1871–1996; Rosenfeld, Eva, 1929–1930, 1937, with a cover note by her, 1956', Sigmund Freud Papers, Library of Congress. This material can be accessed online at: .
DANIEL PICK is a psychoanalyst and historian. He is on the advisory board of Psychoanalysis and Histor