Freud Museum, London
Sigmund Freud’s momentous trip to Athens in 1904, and the subsequent realisation that he might surpass his father’s achievements, is captured in this small but enthralling show
In September 1904, Sigmund Freud set out with his brother Alexander on their annual Mediterranean holiday. They were aiming for Corfu, but the heat was so intense they took a ship from Trieste to Athens instead. The two men climbed the legendary hill above the city to visit the Acropolis and it was there that Freud became overwhelmed with a strange and bewildering sensation. “By the evidence of my senses I am now standing on the Acropolis,” he later wrote, “but I cannot believe it.”
This was not just the tourist’s usual expression of amazement: here we are at Machu Picchu, Petra, the Pyramids – and it feels so unreal! Freud experienced a complete incredulity that the Acropolis actually existed at all. He had read about it from childhood, studied engravings and daguerreotypes of the Parthenon, so elegant, grave and stoic; but now that he was here the strongest feelings were of filial guilt (that his father never saw it) and powerful disbelief. The experience would baffle him for decades.
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