Sigmund Freud Museum - The Freud phenomenon as a cultural fixed point
Sigmund Freud is the focus of a Netflix series, appears regularly in the novels of Robert Seethaler and at the weekend the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna will reopen after a renovation. "It is also an anchor for young people," said director Monika Pessler in the Dlf.
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, lived in Berggasse 19 in Vienna until he emigrated. His former place of residence, which also includes his practice rooms, has long been a museum. Director Monika Pessler expects great interest at the reopening at the weekend.
Because Freud, according to Pessler, is "an anchor especially in times like these, which are shaken by crises, including political ones, through his cultural-Gothic writings in which he advocated an enlightened coexistence."
New self-view
The interest is in both the person and the analyst. “It is very difficult to differentiate.” Freud's teaching, the exploration of the human subconscious, is still having an impact today, says Pessler. “You are controlled by fears, desires, emotions. And this new self-view that Freud opened up to people is something that we always like to think about today. "
Psychoanalysis has developed further, Freud's theories are no longer “state of the art”. “But they are the basis. The fact that one even talks about fears goes back to Freud. "
Refugee and soul healer
The fact that Freud is so important to many today is also because "he asked us to go inside us, to observe ourselves, to observe our children in order to come to an understanding of our emotional states."
The autobiographical aspects of his theories, says Pessler, “lead people to approach Freud as a human being.” His personal fate as a refugee, the murder of four of his sisters in the Holocaust, reflected what many had experienced. "There are many moments of identification for people who are on the run and find themselves in the life of Sigmund Freud and his family."
