Professional Documents
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Coffee With Freud - Brett Kahr
Coffee With Freud - Brett Kahr
Coffee With Freud - Brett Kahr
FREUD E
Brett Kahr
With illustrations by
Alison Bechdel
K AR N AC
The right of Brett Kahr to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978–1–78220–343–8
www.karnacbooks.com
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Brett Kahr (Author) has worked in the mental health profession for
over thirty-five years. He is Senior Fellow at Tavistock Relationships at
the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology in London, and Consult-
ant Psychotherapist at The Balint Consultancy. He is also Consultant in
Psychology to The Bowlby Centre in London, and a Trustee of the Freud
Museum and of Freud Museum Publications. He serves as Series Editor
of the “Forensic Psychotherapy Monograph Series” and as Series Co-
Editor of the “History of Psychoanalysis Series” for Karnac Books. His
books include Life Lessons from Freud and Tea with Winnicott. A registrant
of both the British Psychoanalytic Council and the United Kingdom
Council for Psychotherapy, he works with individuals and couples in
Hampstead, North London.
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Dr Kurt Eissler:
“Bier hat der Professor nicht getrunken?”
[“Did the Professor not drink beer?”]
Dr Walter Schmideberg:
“Soviel ich weiss, nein! Nur Kaffee, wie jeder Wiener.”
[“So far as I know, no! Only coffee, like every Viennese.”]
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SF: So, tell me, Herr Professor Kahr, what is it that you wish to ask me
about my work?
BK: Well, we already know such a lot about your contributions. They
have become so deeply internalised as a part of our daily vocabu-
lary.
SF: What do you mean?
BK: Nowadays, in the twenty-first century, everyone uses your techni-
cal language without a second thought. For instance, words like
“ego” and “oedipal”, and phrases such as “sibling rivalry” and
“unconscious guilt” . . . even “Freudian slip” . . . these have become
profoundly entrenched in our thinking and speaking.
SF: You are talking, of course, from the English perspective. “Ego” is
not my word, but that of my translators. I spoke of “das Ich”.
BK: Of course. But you approved a great many of the early translations,
and you kept in close contact with many of your British colleagues
about the translations.
SF: Ernest Jones really coordinated so very much of that for me, with
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A Moravian childhood
SF: I must confess that having stretched my legs, I find it quite a relief
to be seated once again. It is annoying that the mind can be so
vibrant and so agile, and yet the body must always betray us.
BK: It is very annoying, especially when so many of us grow up with
that delightful state of infantile omnipotence, not having to worry
about the body at all.
SF: You have read my work, I see. Infantile omnipotence is absolutely
right in these circumstances. Babies are dominated entirely by pri-
mary processes, and by bodily gratifications. They do not have to
worry about decrepitude, and cancer, and death. That is a treat
reserved particularly for those of us who have reached a grand age.
BK: But I do not think that you would describe infancy as a restful
period, would you? After all, the baby, too, has his or her own strug-
gles. Indeed, psychoanalysts who came to prominence after your
death – people such as Melanie Klein and, in particular, Donald
Winnicott, a Briton – characterised infancy as a very frightening
period, full of fears and anxieties of falling and of disintegrating.
SF: Melanie Klein is a name that I know, but I do not care for this
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Freud as translator
BK: Professor Freud, you spent your earliest years in a small provin-
cial locale, living in very modest circumstances. In view of such
a relatively humble background, with somewhat unworldly and
often impecunious parents, one might not have expected that you
would become perhaps the most seminal thinker of the twentieth
century.
SF: And what about the twenty-first century?
BK: Well, your importance has now spanned two centuries, if not three!
SF: Yes – I published the Studien über Hysterie in 1895.
BK: The Studies on Hysteria.
SF: Indeed. In the nineteenth century. And you tell me that we are now
in the twenty-first century?
BK: Yes.
SF: So, have you read the Studien über Hysterie? I suppose you have.
BK: A true classic.
SF: I regard that volume as a transformational stage in the development
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BK: We had begun to speak about the very special setting that you cre-
ated for your patients. You arranged to work with your analysands
in a very quiet, very private room.
SF: Very private, very quiet . . . yes, of course. But you have already
expressed your discontent – quite clearly, I might add – that some-
times my patients would encounter not only my maid, but also my
dog.
BK: I hope you will forgive my cavil. Certainly compared with the
traditional psychiatric settings, which had allowed for no privacy
at all . . .
SF: Yes, I did inaugurate a change. Of course.
BK: I know that I have already expressed my admiration for what you
have done, but I often become quite overwhelmed when I consider
your achievement in its historical context, because I believe that
you really did create a paradigm shift.
SF: Paradigm shift?
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BK: You devoted quite a lot of the early 1890s to the development of
your neurological work.
SF: Neurology, yes. With particular interest in the neurology of chil-
dren, but also of adults.
BK: We have already talked about your monograph on aphasia, which
appeared in 1891.
SF: To my shame, it sold only two hundred and fifty-seven copies, as
you know already.
BK: But you published many other neurological articles. You contrib-
uted to both the Archives de Neurologie – a leading French journal
– and also to the Neurologisches Centralblatt.
SF: It is true. I made various contributions with my studies of children.
I believe I may be the first person to have identified a particular
paediatric neurological symptom – namely, hemianopia, which is
a visual symptom. I published that finding in 1888 in the Wiener
Medizinische Wochenschrift.
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BK: I have asked for Herr Kerl to bring us some more refreshments.
SF: Ach, this is fine. I am thirsty, and I can tell you, I am also hungry.
BK: Well, we have been working hard. But we shall be certain that Herr
Kerl does not bring you any cauliflower!
SF: You know of my aversion to cauliflower?
BK: Yes, of course. I had always thought that for you, as a former
neurologist, cauliflower must look rather like a brain.
SF: Exactly, so. I shall eat something else.
BK: Yes, of course, Herr Professor. But no chicken either, I presume?
SF: You have really made it your business to study my life.
BK: Well, you did write about this in one of your letters to your some-
time colleague Wilhelm Fliess. And your son Martin also reported
on your aversion in his memoir Glory Reflected: Sigmund Freud – Man
and Father.
SF: I see. Well, spare me the psychoanalysis of my dislike for chicken.
BK: Of course, Herr Professor.
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