Diane Silverthorne, BelSoc Committee member writes:
The Freud Museum, at 20 Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead, is celebrating its fortieth anniversary with an exhibition that tells the story of the museum, the history of psychoanalysis and exiled family life through forty objects. The exhibition, ‘40 Objects, 40 Years’, will open on the 19 August.
Each object, some of which have lain hidden from sight in the Museum’s attic spaces, will be shown for the first time. Various significant figures, including philosopher Alain de Botton, Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger and novelist Esther Freud have reflected on a chosen object selected by the Museum.
Personal objects include a battered leather suitcase belonging to the Freuds’ live-in maid Paula Fichtel; Martha Freud’s hand-written recipe book, and a selection of books from child psycho-analyst Anna Freud’s bedroom, a series of pulp-fiction titles from the 1940s.
These objects are expected to exercise a similar fascination for visitors as does Freud’s coat, worn on his flight from Vienna in June 1938, three months after the ‘Anschluss’ (Hitler’s annexation of Austria), which is on permanent display. Only after Anna Freud faced Gestapo interrogation was her father finally persuaded to leave.
Anna Freud continued to live in the family home until her death in 1982. According to her wishes, it was opened four years later, in July 1986, as a permanent museum with the entire contents of Freud’s study, library and other family-owned objects intact.
This exhibition, and recently announced plans to develop the Freudsʼ beloved garden as a mental health refuge, say much about the legacies of psychoanalysis in conflicted times.
The exhibition, ‘40 Objects, 40 Years. Celebrating 40 years of the Freud Museum through its collections’, runs from Aug 19th to Feb 14th . Exhibition details here
