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a card to congratulate Sigmund. (Incidentally, he referred to Sigmund as “Sigismund,” suggesting
that the family still sometimes used the older form.) The card was sent to Freud’s sister Mitzi in Berlin;
Philipp was already en route back to Manchester (presumably from Berlin) at the time. Philipp wrote
(the card was dated March 12, 1901): “…the good news of our beloved brother Sigismund. I would be grateful
if you would inform me more about the promotion at Manchester.”60 It was as though Philipp was
not to contact Freud or Amalia directly, or literally to see Amalia again.
In conclusion, although none of Krüll’s or other evidence for the Amalia-Philipp affair is conclusive, the evidence taken together is very strong that the “affair” was at least psychologically real for young Freud; that is, the affair was a significant part of Freud’s psychology. It certainly helps to explain Freud’s persistent interest in sexuality in childhood, in great figures of ambiguous parentage, and in sexual conflict between father and son, as well as to shed light on Freud’s rejection of his father. The Religious and Other Significance of the Amalia-Philipp AffairKrüll’s thesis is important not merely because of its intrinsic importance for understanding the life and psychology of Freud, but also because it is centrally connected to Freud’s relationship to religion. The Amalia-Philipp affair explains why Freud would place Oedipal conflicts (i.e., conflicts between father and son over the mother) at the center of his theory of the origin of religion. After all, the Bible had provided Freud’s first theoretical framework for interpreting his own family situation. It was in the Bible that such conflicts (such as that between David and Absalom) were first discussed. Furthermore, this incident may provide the explanation for why the Jakob Freud family left Freiberg so suddenly. In leaving Freiberg, Jakob also left behind his two elder sons, never to live near them again; the move established a permanent split in the family, since shortly after Jakob left, his sons emigrated to Manchester, England. There were occasional later visits, but the father and sons lived henceforth many hundreds of miles apart—and, as noted, Philipp never visited the Jakob Freud household. I strongly agree with Krüll’s additional proposal that the reason for the move from Freiberg was that Jakob learned of or began to suspect the affair between Amalia and Philipp. The move was thus motivated to a significant extent by the desire to put a stop to this liaison. Such a motivation would explain why Amalia and Jakob left even though social and economic conditions were favorable; why they left rather suddenly; |