Posted on 07/05/2005 6:48:04 PM PDT by Leo Carpathian
Ukraine played an important role in life of the famous Viennese doctor and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud. As a matter of fact, the family roots bound him to Halychyna in Western Ukraine, while his professional contacts were mainly in Odesa
Solomon Freud, grandfather of the renowned psychiatrist, was born in the western Ukrainian town of Buchach in the Ternopil oblast, where his family had been living for several generations. Dreaming of getting an education, he went to the town of Tysmenytsia, which was known for its Yeshiva, Jewish school for studying the Talmud. Having married a local girl, the young man settled in Tysmenytsia for good. Soon the couple had a son they named Jacob, who was the future father of Sigmund Freud.
But you cannot make a living only from the intelligence. In 1838, Solomon became a partner with his father-in-law Abraham Hoffman. Together they traveled endless roads of Halychyna and Moravia. In Freiberg, the present-day Pribor in the Czech Republic, which is known for its textiles, merchants bought woolen fabrics, dyed them and brought them back to resell in Halychyna. With the money they earned, the partners bought wool, honey, leather and fat, and transported them to Freiberg, where they resold it to local wholesalers.
Abraham Hoffman, who was the great grandfather of Sigmund Freud, tells about the further fate of the family business in a very interesting chronicle. The 69-year-old businessman wrote: "Because of my old age and the fact that it is difficult for me to cope with the problems I face in business on my own, I made my grandson a partner. All operations outside Freiberg are his responsibility, whereas I'm engaged in the purchase and sale of goods throughout the city. In order to be able to do business, I obtained a passports valid for one year for me and my grandson from the Highest Government of the City of Lemberg [present-day Lviv - author]."
Business interests dictated the permanent presence of partners in Freiberg. On June 24, 1844, Hoffman applied to the city magistrate for permission for him and Jacob to live in the city. Two years later the application was approved. The reference of the Freiberg-based textile corporation read that the applicants "are honest and respectable merchants, who buy textiles produced by our local craftsmen... and sell them in Halychyna. In return, they bring other goods from there to sell in our city. The presence of these merchants in Freiberg is profitable not only for city residents, but also for the residents of outlying villages and towns, since these merchants bring the textiles to market. The work of these merchants is very profitable for local trade".
Solomon, whose son substituted him in business, did not go to the new place and stayed in Tysmenitsa to spend the rest of his life there. When the 40-year-old Jacob met the 20-year-old Amalia Nathansohn, he was a widower and had two sons. His new fiancee was born in the Ukrainian town of Brody. So, both parents of "the father of psychoanalysis" were from Halychyna. After the marriage, which took place in July 1855 in Vienna, the Freud couple moved to Freiberg. There on May 6, 1856 Sigmund was born.
The Viennese psychiatrist had close ties with Odesa. Two of his uncles, the brothers of his mother, resided there. Before marriage Amalia had also lived for a little while in Odesa. When Sigmund turned 27, his father came up with the idea of setting up a private business in Odesa. Unfortunately, the 70-year-old Jacob returned from "the Black Sea pearl" with nothing.
Freud also had a professional interest in Odesa. His psychiatrist friend wrote him on November 10, 1909: "My colleague Wulf is now in Odesa. He is very interested in psychoanalysis and bid farewell to his last place of residence in Berlin within several weeks. I know him as an active and reliable person, but in terms of finances he is in dire straits. Perhaps you can send some patients his way if there is an opportunity. I think he will address you personally, since he asked me for your address."
Freud and Wulf began corresponding with each other quite actively. In 1914, in an essay about the history of the psychoanalytical movement, Freud complained about the absence "of any deep-rooted scientific traditions" in France and America and noted: "Only Odesa has a representative of an analytical school under the name M. Wulf".
It is not known whether Freud sent any patients to Wulf, but it is known that patients were brought to him from Odesa. For example, a young Odesa psychiatrist named Leonid Droznes brought to Vienna a 24-year-old graduate from the Odesa University by the name of Sergius Pankejeff, who became the most renowned patient of Freud. While examining his particular case, the interpreter of dreams formulated the key term in psychoanalysis labeled "primary scene".
Freud received the Odesa patient every day for four years straight. The patient recalled "the black, intelligent piercing eyes that nevertheless did not arouse any discomfort... The whole attitude of Freud and the way he listened to me was considerably different from those of his renowned colleagues I happened to know."
When in the summer of 1914 Sergius returned to Odesa, his mother ordered a candlelight vigil in the church in honor of the Viennese doctor. Pankejeff recalled: "This was how she wanted to express her gratitude to the doctor for my successful recovery. And the orthodox priest solemnly read a prayer for Sigmund's well-being".
Freud wrote a monograph titled From The History Of An Infantile Neurosis based on Pankejeff's case, due to which the Odesa resident entered the history of world psychoanalysis as Wolf Man (white wolves in a tree was a subject of a nightmare seen by him in childhood).
Freud wrote the following about Pankejeff: "I parted with him with the confidence that I had cured him." But in May 1918, the professor received a letter from Odesa in which Sergius requested another session with the psychiatrist. In April of the following year the resident of Odesa came to Vienna. Freud presented him his personally signed book. In September 1919, he began treating the patient, which lasted till Easter of 1920.
In this period the interpreter of dreams had literally saved the patient's family, which emigrated to Vienna. Pankejeff recalled: "We simply did not have the money to pay for accommodation. If it was not for professor Freud, who from time to time managed to find for us English books for translation from his English patients, we would not have survived." Over the course of time, Pankejeff got the position of a clerk in an insurance agency.
The destinies of Freud's acquaintances in Odesa were varied. Wulf had emigrated to Palestine, where he founded a psychoanalytical association. Droznes died in 1942 in Odesa, which was under occupation during WW II. Pankejeff died in Vienna in 1979. He proudly called himself "Freud's most known case".
"Freud received the Odesa patient every day for four years straight."
Is this patient the first record holder for shrink fees?
He probably paid with chickens!
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