Living in the Shadow of the Freud Family (Hardcover)

by Sophie Freud (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“From Paris, to Nice, to a refugee camp in Morocco, and then to New York, what this book makes clear is that it is impossible to leave all one's baggage behind....This collection of recollections and contemporary voices is an intriguing insight into the complexities of the family, all the more so because Sigmund Freud himself appears in a sort of cameo role, an incidental but influential presence. It is a fascinating read for scholars of Freud and family relationships alike, although for the interested layman it can be read purely for the soap-opera enjoyment of this complex family.”–Metapsychology Online Reviews

“Drawing on her late mother's memoirs, other family writings, and her own diary, Sophie Freud, the granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, chronicles the family's neurotic relationships over the course of the 20th century in Europe and the U.S. For example she reveals that her father was not considered suitable to marry her mother, because the famous psychoanalyst was "just another psychiatrist and one who writes pornography at that," and that Dr. Freud was later asked to be her parents' marriage counselor. The book includes a Drucker-Freud family tree, photos, and portraits.”–Reference & Research Book News

“Merging memory and love, Sophie Freud has chronicled the struggles of her famous family and its stern patriarch in an affecting memoir of searing power and poignancy....[a] domestic saga that is a valuable document of our times....As if weaving a tapestry, she examines the Freud family legacy by stitching together memories of others, their letters, diaries and even obituaries....The effect is mesmerizing, even Proustian. Instead of writing a memoir that observes history from a single fixed perspective, Freud pulls her readers into her extended family's kaleidoscope lives over decades of personal drama and international conflict.”–The Daily News

“Imagine growing up in a home that fully embraced the Oedipus complex? Yeah, not so fun. Enter Sophie Freud, the grand-daughter of the granddaddy of psychoanalytic thought. Freud offers the repressed masses an inside glimpse into such a childhood....Her memoir chronicles the extended family through letters, diaries and recaps of personal experiences, exploring the triumphs and hardships of carrying the famous name.”–The Improper Bostonian

“What is in fact most compelling about this book is the sublime honesty of Sophie Freud herself. One feels her pride and her suffering as a scion of psychoanalytic aristocracy.”–Charles B. Strozier, Professor of History, John Jay College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

“I found myself completely taken over, pulled into the story and unable to put the book down...so compelling is the combination of historical events with intriguing personal/family stories.... This saga, fascinating in its own right, and sheds reflected light on the famous Freud family. Autobiography, diaries and letters give multiple views of these events, held together by Sophie Freud's own fiercely honest narration. I know of nothing like it and strongly recommend it as a beautifully crafted work that will appeal to the widest group of readers.”–Louis Breger, Ph.D. Author of the acclaimed biography Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision

“This riveting, insightful book illuminates the personal lives of Freud's extended family through letters, diaries and personal observations. No melodrama can match the loves, hates, betrayals and deceptions that rend the members apart. Yet there are displays of extraordinary courage, outstanding achievements, intense cultural pursuits and deep dedication. For instance, amazing courage is displayed by Freud's daughter-in-law and granddaughter as they escape the advancing Germans by bicycling across France. Benignly but distantly, Sigmund floats above the turmoil. For the Freud scholar this is a must-read, for the layman it is as juicy as a gossip column.”–Dorit B. Whiteman, Ph.D. President, Nassau County Psychological Association author of The Uprooted: A Hitler Legacy and Escape via Siberia: A Jewish Child's Odyssey of Survival

“Spanning more than a century of family history, Sophie Freud's captivating memoir presents a penetrating and brutally honest glimpse into the conflicted lives, unfulfilled dreams, and cruel setbacks experienced by this extended branch of the Freud family. Readers will be fascinated by the sometimes harrowing details of how this famous family--buffeted by the tragedy of two world wars and the horrors of the Holocaust--survived the arduous path from Vienna to a new life in America.”–Frank J. Sulloway, Author of Freud, Biologist of the Mind: Beyond the Psychoanalytic Legend and Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives.

“This is a fascinating and unusual book, one that can be read at many different levels. It is a moving document--an act of love--of a daughter who, in her own later years, re-discovers her mother through her mother's autobiography. This is altogether and extraordinary, even epic, account of mainly the lives of mother and daughter, but also of an entire family. I was very moved by its depth, sadness, courage, and honesty.”–Morris N. Eagle, Ph. D. Professor Emeritus, Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies Adelphi University.

Book Description

The memoir of Sigmund Freud's indomitable daughter-in-law, Esti, roots this fascinating narrative written by granddaughter Sophie Freud.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 472 pages
• Publisher: Praeger; 1 edition (April 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275994155
• ISBN-13: 978-0275994150
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #490,608 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Living History, June 3, 2007

By	A. Levin - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sophie Freud, the author of this wonderful book, has kept a diary most of her life, as did her mother, Esti, along with many letters and documents of her fractured family. These documents are the scaffolding of a compelling story of romance, marriage, betrayal, escape and ultimately, the need to reinvent one's self in another country. Ms.Freud uses these papers (in French and German), along with her own commentary and that of her brother. The tale of her escape from Paris on a bicycle with her mother is vivid. She also uses photographs of her family and documents which increase the appeal of the book.
For anyone interested in a life of the twentieth century, with war, loss and emigration, this is a wonderful book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling memoir, August 1, 2007

By	Lewis H. Miller, Jr. "Professor of English Em... - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sophie Freud's recent book, Living Under the Shadow of the Freud Family, is most interesting and compelling. She masterfully interweaves perspectives on the private (and public) lives of her family and herself, thus offering a memoir that at times reads like a first-rate novel.

Professor Freud's wit, mischievousness, and clear-eyed vision pervades the various narratives and adds a most important and entertaining dimension--not only in her diary entries but in her numerous candid and often wonderfully blunt assessments of others (family members, professors, etc.) and in her self-reflexive comments (e.g. when she reflects puckishly that she may be writing this book to display her own achievements for the Annee Scolaire prize--"who knows, perhaps I am writing this book just for that purpose"). It is this kind of serious play, throughout, that makes this memoir so very readable and revealing, at the same time Sophie Freud's commentary or her mother's autobiographical narrative or numerous letters continue to remind readers of the shadow of her grandfather and other relatives (Tante Janne, her brother, her father, et al. ) and of the sinister shadow of Hitler and WW2 which impinges trenchantly on the lives of the Freud family, not to mention the world. I am reminded of the author, W.G, Sebald, photos included. In short, among other things, I have come away with a very deep and complex feeling for Professor Freud's mother, along with multiple insights into her own fascinating self.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is more than a family portrait., August 8, 2007

By	martin segal (Acton, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sophie Freud's new book is more than a history of a famous family in the 20thc, but a history of the century in itself. The long arc of Germany's attempt to achieve at least European, if not worldwide, supremacy, is told through the eyes of a family that lived it.

The book is neither long nor hard to read, therefore, I was disappointed when Sophie thanks her editors for helping her cut it down. I want to read it all. Basically the book is Sophie's mother's autobiography. Said Ernestine, who liked to be called Esti married Martin Freud, one of Sigmund Freud's sons. She wrote her book late in her life, and her writings are in Roman type, whereas Sophie's comments are in italics, and thus this whole book which was written AND edited by Sophie becomes a dual biography.

Accompanying the stories of these 2 women are many, many letters written by other members of the Freud family, and from them we can make our own judgements about the people and compare them to the ones that Sophie makes. These other letters are in various fonts.

The mother, Esti, seems at first to be a simple lovely girl in love with Martin, but Sigmund says of her "she is not only maliciously meshugge but also mad in the medical sense." We see this in the early years of their marriage. Talk about dysfunctional families!

The family split up in 1938: Esti and Sophie went to Paris, and Martin and his son, Walter, went to London. For the next 4 years mother and daughter struggled to keep alive, to find decent lodging and food, and to keep barely one step ahead of Hitler as he ran down France. Vichy France became a haven for the Freuds for a while, but eventually they went to Casablanca and then to Lisbon, and finally to the USA. (The movie "Casablanca" may have been fiction, but it was a fiction that many people really lived.)

I have to admire both women who essentially became trilingual in a very short time. For all of Esti's complaining and bitterness (her letters to Walter during the war years must have been devastating to the young man who could do nothing to help). But as a speech therapist, Esti, who first taught in Vienna, learned to teach both in France and then in the USA. Sophie went straight from the lycee in France (already a 2nd language for her) to Radcliffe College. Both women earned Ph.Ds.

Don't be dismayed by the family tree at the beginning. In fact, ignore it at first. However, I wish that dates had been included. The important characters will become clear upon reading. At times the book sounds like a novel, but it is not. Sophie and her brother were thus separated for most of their lives. Walter died not long before Sophie finished the book and his children found about 200 letters from their mother to him. Although most of this book was finished, Sophie had to incorporate many of them into her new publication.

This is a sad book, but who cannot say that the 20th c, esp. the first half, was not sad, in the deepest sense of the word? I enoyed the book thoroughly and I think you will as well. Do not expect to find out much about Sigmund however - that is reserved for other books. You will find out about many members of both the Freud and Drucker (Esti's family) families - some uplifting news and some destructive habits. Many of the Freud family were able to escape Austria, but many were not and were thus exterminated. The last page of the book which contains the final words of both Esti and Sophie (for now at least - let's hope she writes more) is indeed sad. I did not mind reading it early on. You choose.