Figure 1.--Here we see the Freud family in 1898. It looks like some kind of celebration, perhaps a birthday party. In the front row: Sophie, Anna, and Ernst Freud. Middle row: Oliver and Martha Freud, and Minna Bernays (Martha's sister). Back row: Martin and Sigmund Freud.

Freud enjoyed a happy, fullfilling family life without any of neuroisis and prolems he so famoudly studied. Freud married Martha Bernays (1886). She was the second daughter of Emmeline and Berman Bernays. She was raised in an observant Orthodox Jewish family. Her paternal grandfather Isaac Bernays was a Chief Rabbi of Hamburg. The Bernays and Freud families were well acquainted. Martha's elder brother Eli marryed Freud's younger sister. The two had different ideas about Judaism. The Freuds were liberal Jews and Freud himself was totially uninterested in religiuous observance. Freud did not just experience sexuality from a scientific perspective. Martha was a slim and attractive young woman. She is also described as a charmer. She has been described as a charmer. She was intelligent, educated and well read, but not a scientist that collaborated with Freud. She ran an efficent and harmonious houshold. She was almost obsessive about punctuality and dirt, but was by no means a cold cleaning automan. She is described as firm but loving with her children. French analyst René Laforgue describes Martha as creating a home atmosphere of peaceful 'joie de vivre'. The one differene oif sny siugnificance was over religion. Martha would tell a cousin that "not being allowed to light the Sabbath lights on the first Friday night after her marriage was one of the more upsetting experiences of her life". Martha was unable to establish a close reltionship with Anna, their youngest daughter. There were six children in all: Mathilde (1887), Jean-Martin (1889), Oliver (1891), Ernst (1892), Sophie (1893), and Anna (1895). Martha would console herself after her husband's death,iting "in the 53 years of our marriage there was not a single angry word between us". Their youngest child, Anna, became a distinguished psychoanalyst in her own right. Anna Freud set up a private practice in the treatment of psychological disorders. Much of the clinical material upon which Freud based his theories and pioneering techniques came from Anna's practice.

Created: 5:20 AM 5/3/2018
Last updated: 5:20 AM 5/3/2018