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this general subject, Sachs makes out a case for a strongly ambiva–
lent attitude toward the father which served to emphasize dualism in
Freud's orientation to the world. In this fashion the author, for a few
pages at least, drops his avowed intention of not treating Freud as an
object: he actually attempts to analyze him. But the result is thin. The
analysis may explain some of the pride as striving to disprove the father's
pessimistic prophecy of the son's future. It may explain Freud's refusal
to accept anything on authority and even his rebellious courage. But for
so distinguished a mind as Freud's much still seems to have been left
unclarified--much that would probably be more illuminating if known.
It seems significant in this connection that the chapter is uniquely pep–
pered with quotations from the poets, as if the author were girding his
loins with some special armor to help him in an unequal contest.
Having said these possibly unkind words about the book, it remains
to consider the positive contribution which it unquestionably makes. For
despite the special pleading already noted, one finds, particularly on re–
reading, many objective facts which the thirty years of association pro–
duced and which are set down in these pages as valuable biographical
.material. One learns a considerable amount about Freud's habitual way
of life-the rooms in which he lived while in Vienna and in his last days
in England; something about the members of his family circle, particu–
larly his wife and her sister, and his lively mother; his daily routine of
Herculean labor and his indefatigable prowess, whether in mental or
physical activities; his diversions, such as the regular Saturday night card
game, and the nature and locale of his summer vacations. Freud's habit
of writing nearly everything in longhand, whether articles and books or
letters, provides interesting information. His lack of feeling for music,
his love of orchids, his excessive cigar-smoking, and his passion for col–
lecting antique figurines add to our picture of the man. His literary in–
terest in such writers as Goethe, Dostoevsky and Shakespeare are touched
upon. His way of illustrating a point by a homely anecdote-a habit
which more than one psychoanalyst seems to have taken over or have
come by otherwise for some undisclosed reason-is well exemplified.
Thus, to illustrate the paradox that major adversities are sometimes mas–
tered by individuals who may be completely shattered by seeming trivial–
ities, Freud told of the man who on a wager was quite capable of eating
fecal matter successfully until he found himself at last inhibited-by dis–
covering a hair in it! His gift for ironical wit is likewise portrayed as
when, for instance, in answer to the Office of Internal Revenue, which
had expressed some doubt about the correctness of his declaration be–
cause, in its opinion, he had had so many foreign patients who pay high
fees, he said: "I note with pleasure this first official recognition which
my work has found in Austria."
From the strictly biographical point of view where, as already said,
the book seems to make its most significant contribution, the final pages,
