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Freud's Briefe an seine Kinder [Freud's Letters to His Children]. By , pp. 192-234
This article summarizes a recent book,1 which constitutes the first publication of 512 letters that Sigmund Freud wrote to five of his six adult children (excluding Anna Freud, who lived with him). Some of the children's letters in response are included. The author of this article, Margarete Berger, states that these letters allow us to gain some insight into questions such as: What was the emotional significance of his children for Freud? How did Freud react to their psychological crises? Did he share with his children his inner life and his thoughts about his work? How did his genius and his patriarchy overshadow the lives of his children?
In reading these letters, the reader witnesses the decades-long, meaningful togetherness of Freud and his children, beyond their time at 19 Berggasse in Vienna. Freud's children remained his children forever, even as adults—and sometimes they remained his problem children. An analogy to Freud's worry about his psychoanalytic extended family cannot be overlooked.