Freud in Clinton country

The three-part exhibit begins with Freud’s early education and his formativeyears in turn-of-the-century Vienna, home to scores of artists, scientists, philosophers and politicians with radical ideas.

Dubbed The Individual: Therapy and Theory, the middle segment focuses on Freud’s work on the unconscious — dreams and slips of the tongue — and introduces cases involving now-celebrated patients such as Rat Man and Anna O. The final section examines the effects of Freud’s theories on society in light of conflicts he witnessed at the end of his life as the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany.

The exhibit has touched off a fierce debate between Freud’s supporters and his detractors that prompted the Library of Congress to delay its opening by more than two years.

A petition signed by some 50 critics, including veteran feminist Gloria Steinem, criticised exhibit organiser Michael Roth for blindly promoting Freud and ignoring critics who have attacked his work and downplayed his importance in recent years.

Roth, who agreed to include statements by two anti-Freudians in theexhibit’s catalogue, says that “our notions of identity, memory, childhood, sexuality have been shaped in relation to — and often in opposition to — Freud’s work”.

He also notes that Freud’s dark view of the human condition and his tragic outlook clashes with a US culture obsessed with instant gratification. In recent years, Freud’s emphasis on dreams and their interpretation has given way to drugs and alternative treatments. In the United States today, just 2 per cent of therapists say they follow traditional Freudian principles.

But sexuality continues to fascinate. Freud’s voice, recorded by the BBC in 1938 utters these prophetic words at the close of the exhibit: “The struggle is not yet over,” he says in English.