Freud’s Operatic Escape—and Wacky Theories

Published: September 18, 2007, 12:12 pm

Tags: arts amp amp culture, mark edmundson, sigmund freud

THE DEATH OF SIGMUND FREUD: THE LEGACY OF HIS LAST DAYSBy Mark EdmundsonBloomsbury, 276 pages, $25.95 Vienna, the first of the two narrative essays that make up Marc Edmundson's meditation on the late life and thought of Sigmund Freud, is a tale worthy of a libretto. On March 11, 1938, Neville Chamberlain informed the Austrian chancellor that the British would not intercede on Austria's behalf to halt the invasion of Hitler's army. Soon after the German army entered Austria unopposed the next morning, Sigmund Freud's son Martin was at work destroying documentation of his father's foreign financial holdings. The Nazis had declared it illegal for Jews to hold assets in foreign accounts and with anti-Semitic violence already unleashed in the streets of Vienna, Martin knew better than to waste time. If you want to know exactly how the drama plays out, read Mr. Edmundson's book. (Here's a preview: Nazi thugs bust in as if on cue, and Martin attempts to wriggle free by

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