Paper with Sacred Signs: Love Letters of Sigmund Freud

Michael Molnar

All lovers reinvent love - after their fashion. Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays were no exception. In over 1,500 love letters from 1882 to 1886 they lavishly documented their long engagement, its joys, tribulations and misunderstandings. Their newly-published correspondence paints an amazingly detailed day-to-day picture of the engaged couple’s lives and thoughts. At first sight it seems too much to take in. An encyclopaedic welter of information threatens to overwhelm us. Michael Molnar’s talk will blaze some trails through this unknown territory.

Michael Molnar worked at the Freud Museum London from its opening in 1986 until 2009, first as researcher/archivist, then as Director. He edited and translated The Diary of Sigmund Freud 1929-39 (Chatto, 1992). His latest publication is Looking through Freud's Photos (Karnac, 2014).

Part of an exciting and imaginative season of talks and events accompanying the exhibition 'Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing' 22 October 2014 - 22 February 2015.