Snow tour, Freud, "bats and champagne"! all I have to say is "Chacun à son goût!"

A very cold, yet interesting day here in Vienna. We had our second medical walking tour, this time led by non other than Dr. Wasser himself and his guide of "Medical Vienna." As we walked around we discussed that Vienna was the place where in 1549, Matthias Kornaks (or Kornax, can't do much honor to the spelling) performed the first Cesarean Section (Kaiserschnit). The infant was stillborn however. We looked for the Wien Ärtzekammer (Vienna Doctors Chamber), we saw the Franciscaner Platz, a site of the first physicians, Franciscan monks and we wandered into an alleyway until we emerged in front of a house with a plaque that said "This is the place where Mozart died." From the top of this now department store, we had a beautiful view of the rooftops of Vienna. As we continued, we discussed that Maria Theresa, empress of Austria, had a 'chastity commision' replace all the nude statues with clothed ones at the Neuermarkt. We then wandered into yet more catacombs under the Agustinum I believe... Well, all the Habsburgs are buried in these catacombs with impressively ornate coffins. Among the most important Habsburgs and dukes was Archiduke Francis Ferdinand and Kaiserin Elisabeth (aka Sisi, or Sissi), both of them murdered. We talked about the Allgemeines Krankenhaus as the first hospital for the poor established by Joseph II, son of Maria Theresa. Then we concluded the tour at the Pestzoiler, a commemorative column to the victims of the Black Plague.

Our second stop after lunch was the Freud house and museum. Our visit began with a lecture by Dr. Wasser about Sigmund Freud. We had this lecture in one of the rooms of the house, very befitting! Sigmund Freud was born Sigismund Schlomo Freud in Moravia (Now in the Czech Republic). He was born to Jewish parents but he always called himself the "Godless Jew" since he had atheist views. As we know he was the father of psychoanalysis, but he was actually a neurologist; he had a medical degree. He researched the effects of cocaine as an analgesic. in 1884 he worked with biologist, and hypnotist, Jean Martin Charcot. From these experiences and after seeing patients he developed the Seduction Theory, which stated that all patients with neurosis had it because of an abuse in the past. He established that humans pracice sexuality even in the womb and especially at puberty and that any repression is bad for this and causes neurosis. In 1895, on July 23rd, he interprets a dream he had titled "the Dream of Irma's Injection," shortly after he coined the term psychoanalysis. In 1900 he published his famous book The Interpretation of Dreams and tried to state that daily events influence our dreams at night and the way we live in general. Other famous works include The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. As he said himself, he was "born to disturb the dreams of mankind." He had to work in close company to non-Jews so that his work could become acceptable. He worked with Carl Jung, with whom he had differing ideals, and then he broke with him. So did Alfred Adler.

In 1923, he published another famous book, The Ego and the Id, the structural basis of the mind. Freud described the structure of the human mind as having three basic parts that check each other. The Id, is the unconscious not governed by laws. It is the impulse with no morality, ethics or values that aims to obtain satisfaction for instinctual needs. The Ego is the executive of personality. It checks and controls the id and the superego. It is governed by the reality principle. The Superego is the judicial and moral system. It works with the ideal not the real and strives for perfection. It has two branches, the ego-ideal and the conscience. The ego-ideal is the parents' conception of the morally good, whereas the conscience is the morally bad conveyed from parent to child. Freud contracted squamous cell carcinoma from smoking 30-40 cigars a day. He had his right jaw removed and a prosthesis placed in. He emigrated to London during the Nazizeit. At the end of his life, Dr. Schun agreed to administer 3cg of morphine to ease his passing. Freud was euthanized by these high doses on morphine and left this world at 3:00AM on September 23rd, 1939 at age 83.

In the museum, we saw a few pieces of original furniture and part of Freud's antique collection (60 of his total 3500 pieces) donated by his daughter Anna. "The Couch" is in London, so we could not see it. In the waiting room, every Wednesday the Wednesday Evening Psychological Society met to discuss relevant issues on psychology. Freud also loved traveling, and when he met Martha, he became an avid letter writer, cranking out almost 1,400 letters in 4 years and averaging 12 pages a letter... yeah, and I thought I wrote a lot for these blogs. Lastly, we saw portraits by Ferdinand Schmutzer, who drew portraits of important people who held correspondence or some relation to Freud. The last part was very funny, however some words are not apt for this blog.

We ended our day at the Volksoper where we saw "Die Fledermaus" ("The bat") an Operetta by Johann Strauß (The younger). It was a very complex plot that revolved around a 'revenge' for an old joke and the effects of champagne on the events that took place. The music was amazing and though the operetta was in German, the subtitles (yes, subtitles) helped enormously. I think that the trip to the Opera was a great way to begin saying goodbye to Europe.