An Exhibition of the Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna Berggasse 19
18 November 1998 - 17 February 1999

Conception
Lydia Marinelli, Dieter Bogner

Catalogue
"Meine... alten und dreckigen Götter". Aus Sigmund Freuds Sammlung. Hg.: Lydia Marinelli. Frankfurt a. Main: Stroemfeld Verlag, 2001. EUR 29,–.



[Folder Text]
"I am finishing the dream work in a large, quiet, ground floor room with a view of the mountains. My old and dirty gods in which you show so little interest are collaborating in the work as paper weights."
Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fließ, 1st August 1889

The exhibition, mounted by the Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna, and the Freud Museum, London, presents a cross-section of Sigmund Freud's collection of antiquities. The collection was begun in the 1890s and by his death it contained around 3000 objects. Freud wrote to Stefan Zweig: "for all my well-known frugality, I have made many sacrifices for my collection" and "actually read more archaeology than psychology". Freud's antiquities collection was, however, much more than a private passion. He himself underlined its close connection to psychoanalysis by setting it up in his study, first in Berggasse 19 and, after his London exile in 1938, at 20 Maresfield Gardens. The cross-connection between archaeology, psychoanalysis and collecting are a thread through the exhibition. It attempts to follow the possible influences upon Freud's passion for collecting: his meetings with such collectors as the Parisian neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot; his travels to ancient sites which took him to Italy and Greece; his friendship with the archaeologist Emanuel Löwy who advised him on building up his collection; and his enthusiasm for archaeology as reflected in his second great collection, his archaeological library.

Starting out from his collection, the archaeological trails lead into the Freudian work. The "old and dirty gods" join in such projects as the "Interpretation of Dreams", they provide mythological parallels for psychoanalytic conformations, they lay down tracks that continually lead Freud towards Egypt where he eventually encounters the fragmented origins of Monotheism. Archaeology as a metaphor recurs throughout Freudian psychoanalysis, from the "Studies on Hysteria" to "Constructions in Analysis" and is a means to map the human psyche.

Freud dedicated a "case history" to the archaeologist Hanold in Wilhelm Jensen's novella "Gradiva". Here archaeology is linked to the worlds of literature, fantasy fiction, passionate fixations and dreams. The fact that the world of dreams is ruled by wish fulfilment points beyond the archaeological collection to a less material collection: Freud's collection of his own dreams whose analysis provided the "royal road" to psychoanalysis.

Photos: James Morris


Press Review

Tagesanzeiger: Sammeln als Ersatzbefriedigung.
Guido Kalberer: 5.2.1999

El Pais: La pasión coleccionista de Sigmund Freud. Viena expone 150 piezas arqueológicas que decoraban su sala de consultas en la capital austriaca
Julieta Rudich, 3.1.1999

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Feuilleton: Sigmund Freuds "dreckige Götter". Eine Wiener Ausstellung
30.12.1998, S. 31, Paul Jandl

Frankfurter Rundschau: Freuds alte Götter. Der Erfinder der Psychoanalyse als Kunstsammler.
22.12.1998, Paul Kruntorad

Die Presse: Eros am Fußende der Couch, Gott Thot auf dem Schreibtisch.
17.11.1998, Thomas Kramar

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Feuilleton: Meine alten und dreckigen Götter. Helfer, die verfliegenden Gedanken zu festigen: Antiken aus Sigmund Freuds Sammlung in Wien.
19.11.1998, Ulrich Weinzierl

Der Standard: Die Stimmen der Ambivalenz. Freuds archäologische Sammlung ist in der Berggasse zu Gast.
19.11.1998, Roman Freihsl