Chapter IX. Personal Life (1880-1890)

From his correspondence one receives two outstanding impressions of Freud's life in this period: his terrible poverty, and the high quality of his friends. Of the latter we shall speak presently.

Freud's attitude towards money seems always to have been unusually normal and objective. It had no interest in itself; it was there to be used, and he was always very generous whenever he had the opportunity. He might even be said to have been somewhat casual about it except when he needed it desperately for a particular purpose: whether he gave it away or accepted it from a friend, whether he lent it or borrowed it, was all much the same. In his early student days his needs were so modest that it could not have been of very much importance; books were the chief thing money could buy.

At the same time he was quite realistic about money and was far from despising it. It could obviously bring so much, and the lack of it entailed privation. He therefore minded very much being thwarted in his wishes, to travel or whatever else, for the lack of money. And few people have suffered more thwarting for this reason than Freud in his early manhood, since his wishes never lacked intensity.

After his engagement this matter of being thwarted by poverty became really serious. He had to announce that he was a poor man, without a penny, with no prospects, since even a country practitioner needed a modicum of capital to start a practice. This appears to have been the main reason for keeping the engagement secret as long as possible. The family he wished to marry into would have found him totally ineligible, and his friends simply reckless.

The first thing he did, a fortnight after his engagement, was to put himself ‘under curatel’, because of his extravagance, by making his betrothed his banker. He instructed her to insert a silver coin in the box: ‘Metal has a magical power and attracts more; paper flies in the wind. You know, I have become