Community Library Notes
“Hysterical” by Rebecca Coffey is the story of the life of Anna Freud. In the foreword, the author tells what sources she used and how Anna’s psyche was formed by her father — or not.
Anna loved a woman, Dorothy Burlingham, heir to the Tiffany fortune, despite her father saying that lesbianism is a “gateway to mental illness.” It was an open secret that he analyzed her six days out of seven. In spite of this unusual relationship, she grew up to be a respected, dedicated psychologist for children. This is her story, one that her father’s biographers have not told. They have been more interested in upholding her father’s reputation.
As in any fiction novel, falsities interweave with facts and Coffey has created scenes, dialogue and situations based on imagination. The book also includes photos and a touch of Jewish humor, which we’re told her father loved. The novel is told by Anna, in the first person, as she describes her place in their family in Vienna, as one of six children. She often in the waiting room of his office, downstairs in their apartment.
She listened while he questioned patients. “Hysteria” was an epidemic in 1895, and some doctors treated it with surgery, sedation or massage. Freud tried sympathy, attention and talking. He claimed that hysteria was caused by trauma, and trauma was sexual, and according to him it almost always perpetuated by fathers on daughters.
In 1902, Sigmund Freud formed a group of the Wednesday Psychological Society and he was appointed an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Vienna. Anna was close with her Tante (Aunt) Minna and while in the waiting room of her papa’s office, read his stacks of journals and his notes on patients.
Coffey describes how Herve Lanzer was questioned and his responses. He repeats “Whatever are you thinking?”
Papa says that Herr Lanzer is homosexual and that he is “cured completely.” Dr. Jung and Freud go into an adjoining room alone, and talk about psychological theories. Freud admits he and Minna have sex in the evenings. Anna listens at the wall and learns more about her father and aunt. She wants to help Herr Lanzer, but not to tell him family secrets.
Oli, Anna’s brother, tended to their mother, who was in bed all the time. He made her laugh, brought her meals and read to her. Oli was the smartest, and answered all their questions about airplanes and crayons. Papa said the Oedipus complex didn’t apply to Oliver, but Papa was fascinated by him. Anna loved being Papa’s favorite and translated his theories, and listened to him every night. The other children left home, to go to college and marriages.
Anna’s fantasies consumed her when she turned sixteen. She wanted to go to university to study the classics, but Papa thought women should study homemaking. Instead, she was sent to Murano in the Dolomites where she hiked, took massages, played chess and memorized all of her father’s works. She was told to stay away from her sister Sophie’s wedding, and was distraught. She ignored her health for months.
When Anna regained her good health, she resumes her walks with Papa. He suggested she become a “psychologically-informed teacher.” She takes the exam and later teaches as an apprenticed teacher, and helps distribute orphaned children to new homes in Vienna. In 1917, food was scarce. Anna was satisfied with her life, She behaved on the playground at recess as one of the children.
She told her father about her dreams, but feared he would not keep them secret. In 1920, her sister, Sophie, dies of influenza. Anna’s mother burns her husband’s letters to her, and flings herself out the window. She lands in the garden, on her feet with only minor injuries. Papa mourns Sophie and revises his theory of penis envy for little girls. He also mourns the loss of Anna on his analyst’s couch.
Four years after Sophie’s death, Anna becomes an analyst. She tells her story of the process. She met Eva Rosenfeld and fell in love with her. Eva was the substitute for her sister, and had nothing to do with her father. Anna became Eva’s helper with tasks such as helping with dinners and driving the children to school and back. She resumes sessions with her father, and her mother tells her that she once loved a woman. Her parents ended that affair and Mama says, “Don’t let them do that to you.”
Anna goes to a conference and delivers a paper Papa had written about fathers and daughters. She realizes it was a declaration of his love for her. Eva did not turn out to be the love of Anna’s life. Dorothy Burlingham did. Eva became Papa’s patient and returned to her gloomy husband. Dorothy Burlingham burst into the Freud house one night at dinner-time with her four children. She was running away from her abusive husband who was in America.
Anna took charge of the oldest son Robert. They built and raced soap-box cars, swung from trees like monkeys, she gave him money for candy. Dorothy rented a mansion in Vienna and Anna went every day to analyze the children. Soon, another friend of Dorothy’s came to live there with her children. They started the Matchbox School for children in analysis. Music and art were interspersed with mathematics and history, with nature hikes.
But from 1931 to 1938, things were bad: Jews were harassed and the school closed. Anna describes the tension and anxiety when she and Dorothy and the Freud family escaped Vienna and fled to England. A photo shows her and Papa on the train at last. Papa’s three sisters stayed in Germany and were murdered in a concentration camp.
Coffey has won many awards and worked nine years to research and write “Hysterical.” What happened to all the Freud children after they left Vienna? Does Anna stay with Dorothy? Were Dorothy’s children better for having been analyzed by both Anna and Dorothy? Find out in this interesting biographical novel about Anna Freud at your Mendocino Community Library.
The Mendocino Community Library is at the corner of William and Little Lake streets, Mendocino. Hours: Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; closed Sundays and holidays, 707-937- 5773.