A thinker & his couch

While researching on the internet regarding places to visit in London, I came across the Freud Museum. This surprised me, as Sigmund Freud, the Father of Psychoanalysis, is generally associated with Vienna and the US, where he lived and practised psychoanalysis for much of his lifetime.

However, I learned that Freud lived the last year of his life in London, and the house in which he lived is now a museum. This interested me and I put it down as a must-visit place.

Located in an upscale residential area of London, the museum is easily accessible. A five-minute walk from the nearest tube station led us to the beautiful house of the influential thinker of psychology. ‘20 Maresfield Gardens… our last address on this planet’, read the board in front of the museum.

The museum is open for visitors from 12 pm to 5 pm from Wednesdays to Fridays. Having reached the place 15 minutes before time, we waited outside, appreciating the exterior of the house and the beautiful, quiet neighbourhood. Promptly at 12 noon, the front door opened and we were allowed to walk in and buy tickets for a guided tour of the house.

This place was the final home of Sigmund Freud, who came here with his family in 1938, after fleeing Nazi-occupied Vienna. Here his family recreated for him the same working environment as in Vienna, and Freud continued his psychoanalytic practice on patients.

As we walked into the Study, my eyes fell on the iconic psychoanalytic couch on which Freud’s patients reclined and expressed their thoughts and feelings, and shared their dreams and memories. Though the couch appeared smaller than what I had imagined while reading about Freudian work as a student of psychology, it definitely was the centrepiece of the room.

Behind the couch was the green tub-chair where Freud sat and listened as the patients reported everything that came to their minds, a method called free association, which became the basis on which psychoanalytic therapy was built.

In the centre of the Study stood Freud’s desk and on it were figurines of gods and goddesses. What attracted my attention the most was a small idol of Vishnu seated under the five-headed cobra, Shesha. It was a gift from the Indian Psychoanalytic Society, and has a Sanskrit dedication to Freud on a brass plaque. It was gifted to Freud on his 75th birthday, and apparently, he displayed it proudly on his desk to show how his theory had influenced countries as far as the east.

On this very desk Freud worked and wrote until the early hours of the morning, and believed “the old and grubby gods aided him in his work.” To Freud, archaeology and psychoanalysis were closely connected­ — in both the fields, one has to dig deeper in the past in order to understand the present. The library adjoining the study contained all the books Freud chose to bring with him from Vienna.

As we moved up to the first floor of the house, we saw impressive portraits of Freud on the landing. The first floor housed the rooms of Anna Freud, the daughter of Freud, who was also trained in psychoanalysis. Of the six children of Freud, only Anna took up the path of psychology. She continued to live in this house after Freud’s death in 1939, and did a lot of work in child psychoanalysis.

She wished the house to be converted into a museum after her death in 1982. A huge room on the first floor is now used as a conference room where expert-led education programmes are held for students of Psychology, teachers and therapists.

The rear of the house opens out to a beautiful garden where Freud spent time with his pet dogs. The visitors end their museum tour in the shop consisting of several books on the life and work of Freud and Freud-inspired gifts.

I had to drag myself out of the intriguing world of Freud with ‘wishful thinking’ of visiting the house once again.