Freud's notion of the compulsion to repeat organizes for this author an interpretation of Christopher Isherwood's autobiographical novel, Goodbye to Berlin, and the subsequent works inspired by it, including the film Cabaret. Specifically, the author argues that certain intrapsychic themes important to society were revived in each of the four reworkings of Isherwood's novel. He discusses rebellious conflicts with fathers, rebellion against traditional values, and repudiation of the previous generation as the crucial themes. The setting in a wartime context had great appeal on both an individual and a group basis for those audiences in successive decades who watched these productions.