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It is not surprising that medical studies entered upon in such an unorthodox fashion should pursue an irregular and protracted course. Freud did in fact spend over them three years longer than necessary. In later years he talked of his colleagues having twitted him over his dilatoriness, as if he were a backward student, but there were very good reasons for the delay. It was just in the fields he was supposed to traverse rapidly that he would have liked to spend his life.
Freud entered the University of Vienna in the autumn of 1873, at the early age of seventeen. Professor Viktor Kraft's researches in the Archives of the University, undertaken at Dr. Bernfeld's instigation,1 have resuscitated a complete list of the lectures he attended throughout the course of his studies, so that we can now follow them closely step by step. He admitted himself that he pursued in only a negligent fashion the studies proper to the medical career itself and seized every opportunity to dally in those that interested him as well as to forage in neighbouring fields.
In his first semester, October, 1873, to March, 1874, Freud signed up for twenty-three hours a week; twelve lectures in anatomy and six in chemistry, together with practical work in both. During his first summer semester, which ran from the end of April till late July, he spent twenty-eight hours weekly in anatomy, botany, chemistry, microscopy, and mineralogy. With a characteristic overflow of interest he also followed a course on ‘Biology and Darwinism’ given by the zoologist Claus, and one by Brücke on ‘The Physiology of Voice and Speech’. It was his first sight of the famous Brücke, who became so important to him later. So passed the first year.
In the following winter semester (1874-5) he continued as a regular medical student with twenty-eight hours weekly spent