COURTESY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Coming in at the nick of time, Americans now have online access to all of the papers of pioneering psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. That’s right, all 20,000 of the good doctor’s personal correspondence and notes can now be enjoyed from the comfort of your home.
Here’s a taste of what you get:
The collection reveals Freud’s life and work, including his early medical and clinical training; his relationship with family, friends, colleagues, students, and patients; his association with early psychoanalytic societies; his perspectives on analytical training; and his numerous writings. It contains family papers, correspondence, writings, legal documents and certificates, notebooks, and other materials of a personal nature encompassing his life and career. People of great prominence in 20th-century history are among the correspondents: Franz Werfel, Theodor Hertzl, Stefan Zweig, C. G. Jung, Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Havelock Ellis and Romain Rolland.
It seems like the Library of Congress is easing into the reality of life under a commander-in-chief who doesn’t (can’t?) read books. A few days ago, it announced that its first open house of the year will happen on Presidents Day, which is just the sort of black humor that can get us through this thing. And in this morning’s press release, it notes, pointedly, that Freud “escaped to London after the Nazi takeover of Austria prior to World War II.”