Mrs. Franz Vranitzky, wife of the chancellor of Austria, accompanied by Mrs. Helmut Tuerk, wife of the ambassador of Austria, and Denise von Quistorp-Rejc, cultural attach‚ of the embassy, visited the Library on April 19 to view materials for an upcoming exhibition on Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).
Dr. Billington greeted the guests, who were shown the Freud materials. Also present were Irene Burnham, Interpretive Programs officer, and Margrit B. Krewson, German/Dutch area specialist, who coordinated the visit.
The Library is planning a major exhibition on the achievements and legacy of Freud. "Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture" will explore Freud's fundamental contributions toward understanding the mind, his establishment of a new therapeutic profession and his pervasive influence on 20th century thought.
Freud's intellectual legacies have been under close critical reexamination since the 1970s. The exhibition will encompass modern reassessments of Freud's ideas and show how his insights have been useful in new interpretive approaches to the humanities.
The show will draw primarily on the Freud collections, housed in several divisions of the Library, as well as from other collections relating to Freud. Major loans will be requested from the Freud Museum in London, including Freud's consulting couch and other objects from his study, and from several sources in Vienna.
The Sigmund Freud Archives of New York has been giving its vast collection of Freud's papers and correspondence, books, photographs, paintings, drawings, home movies and other material to the Library of Congress since 1942. In the 1980s Freud's daughter, Anna, donated her papers to the Library. The Manuscript Division has also acquired the papers of many of Freud's friends and disciples, and the Library's unparalleled wealth of materials (maps, photographs, prints, cartoons, posters, films, books, periodicals, etc.) will provide a context for Freud's life and achievements.
A major exhibition examining Freud's intellectual legacy has not been feasible in the past because some of the papers were legally unavailable for public use because of restrictions protecting patient-doctor confidentiality. However, a vast majority of the papers will have entered the public domain by 1995.
Among the international scholars who will advise on the exhibition's development are Peter Gay of Yale University, Hannah Decker of the University of Houston, William McGarth of the University of Rochester, Michael Roth of Scripps College and Carl Schorske of Princeton University. Other expert consultants include Harold Blum, director of Sigmund Freud Archives; Ingrid Scholz-Strasser of the Sigmund Freud Society; Ilse Grubrich- Simitis, psychoanalyst and editor of Freud texts; and Bernard Pacella of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
One in the Library's thematic series "Reviewing the Past Century," "Sigmund Freud: Culture and Conflict" is scheduled to open in May 1996 and run for approximately four months. Version of the exhibition will then travel to various locations in the United States and Europe, including Vienna, Berlin and London.
