New Evidence Found of Freud’s Affair with His Wife’s Sister

Freud, His Wife, Martha Freud (center) and Her Sister, Minna Bernays (left) in 1929

NEW EVIDENCE OF FREUD’S ROMANTIC AFFAIR

Rumors of a romantic affair between Freud and his sister-in-law, Minna Bernays, who lived with the Freuds for years, have long persisted despite staunch denials by Freud loyalists.  The Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung, Freud’s disciple and later his rival, claimed that Miss Bernays had confessed to an affair to him.  The claim has long been dismissed by Freudians as malice on Jung’s part.  However, some researchers have even theorized that she may have become pregnant by Freud and have had an abortion.

What had been lacking was any real proof of such an affair.  However, a German sociologist now says that he has found evidence that on Aug. 13, 1898, during a two-week vacation in the Swiss Alps, Freud, then 42, and Miss Bernays, then 33, stayed at the Schweizerhaus, an inn in Maloja, and registered as a married couple.  This is a finding that might well cause historians to re-evaluate their understanding of Freud’s own psychology.

The story is given extensive coverage in today’s New York Times.

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