In Memoriam Sigmund Freud

Now that fate has broken the bonds that for many decades existed between Freud and his oldest pupils, I cannot refrain from dedicating a few reverent and heartfelt words to Freud, the man. I have in mind not only the man as revealed through his writings but Freud as we saw him and lived with him in our frequent intimate contacts.

You may think me mystic when I contend that it is altogether fitting that this man should have left the world at this very time. I say it not because Freud had reached an advanced age and had suffered from a severe illness; for we must remember that his forebears lived long and that he withstood his illness for a period of almost twenty years. What I wish to say is that it seems wholly natural that this man whose entire being was devoted to the noblest principles of humanism should abandon this world at a time when the crassest contradictions to these principles prevail.

Thirst for truth and love are the fundamentals of humanism. They pave the way to that broader understanding of fellow men which is the mainstay of humanism. Freud's immense drive to learn the truth reveals itself in the story of his research and in his uncompromising battle for the verification and assertion of the truth as he saw it. This was acknowledged by an honored although immutable opponent of Freud's teaching when Dr. Beep, professor of theology at the Catholic University of Freibrug, stated: 'Freud is a fanatical searcher for the truth and I believe he would not hesitate to unveil it even though it should cost him his life'.

As to love, did not Freud's work reclaim for mankind the right to love? Did he not elevate love to the level of a legitimate, vital and natural factor of life? This he saw fit to do at a time when love was given recognition only by poets and was more generally regarded as a play of the imagination, a whim or a mood. It was a time when the Frenchman Béranger created a sensation and aroused opposition by asking in Parliament