6 Friday, August 24, 2018 | Haaretz WEEKEND The ring master

Sigmund Freud gave bejeweled rings engraved with mythological figures to patients and to members of the ‘secret committee’ of psychoanalysts that he founded. What prompted the father of to give such gifts, one of which ended up in Jerusalem?

Eran Rolnik I now regard it as a universal event of early childhood.... If that is so, we can understand the riveting power of was preparing a birth- Oedipus Rex...” day present for a woman His father’s death did more than friend – a small engraved prompt Freud to embark on self-anal- gem for insertion into a ysis; it transformed him from being a ring. It was fixed in the devotee of ancient cultures into a col- “Icentre of a piece of stout cardboard lector of their remnants. and on this I wrote the following words: Once Freud started to listen to ‘Voucher for the supply by Messrs. L., what was occurring in his patients’ jewelers, of a gold ring … for the at- inner world, with the aid of myths tached stone bearing an engraved ship and images from humanity’s remote with sail and oars.’ But at the point at past, he apparently sought the physi- which I have here left a gap, between cal presence of the heroes of antiquity ‘ring’ and ‘for,’ there stood a word in his room. “My old and dirty gods,” which I was obliged to cross out since it he called them. His collection, which was entirely irrelevant. It was the little grew apace from year to year, was word ‘bis’ [German for ‘till’].” compressed into the two studies in his An obscure article, in which Sig- apartment at Berggasse 19 in . mund Freud subjects to analysis the Antiquities were not displayed any- clumsy text of a gift voucher he in- where else in his home. tended to give a woman friend, is the Among local antique dealers, Freud only place in his writings that offers was known as a knowledgeable col- a glimpse of his custom of giving as a lector who would not be tempted into gift ancient rings set with an intaglio overpaying for an item. If he discov- (seal) stone and engraved by an artist. ered that an object in his possession In the course of his life, Freud gave was inauthentic, he quickly got rid of it. out about 20 such signet rings, set with Four decades later, the two rooms in his ancient semi-precious stones from his apartment were crammed with about collection of gems, bearing a figure 2,000 archaeological items. Amazingly, from Greek and Roman mythology. He the Nazi authorities allowed Freud to himself wore, during certain periods leave Vienna in 1938 with his collection of his life, more than one ring from of antiquities in exchange for a trifling the collection. fine of 400 Reichsmarks and without Six of these rings are currently on confiscating even one object. display in an exhibition, “Freud of the The figurines and statuettes among Rings,” at the Israel Museum in Jeru- which Freud spent most of the day salem through March 2019. They rep- helped him enter into the singular resent the three main groups of those emotional and epistemic attitude for gifted with the rings: psychoanalysts psychoanalytical listening. His non- who were members of the “secret com- neutral and non-sterile consulting mittee”; friends to whom Freud was es- room was an additional expression of pecially grateful; and female psycho- the living, warm and involved presence analysts whom he treated or of whom of the physician of the mind, who saw he was particularly fond. Also on show no contradiction between a search for are several items from the Freud col- the truth concealed in the depths of the lection, together with a video work by unconscious, and the need to accommo- The ring that gave to his daughter Anna, now on display at the Israel Museum. She saw it as a symbol of paternal love. American artist Amie Siegel, exploring date uncertainty and to acknowledge Freud Museum, London / Ardon Bar Hama the fetishistic aspect of maintaining the multiple facets and meanings that Freud’s collections. Visitors will also can accrue to every association raised see the ring that Freud himself wore, by the patient. sisted that the committee’s existence time that Freud played down a literary yes-men. Each recipient of a ring was happened when Austria was annexed which is set with a green gemstone Among the antiquities in the col- be kept secret. The first time the its source of inspiration that was liable to grateful to the genius who invented to the Third Reich. Freud doesn’t live bearing a portrait of the god Zeus. lection are items directly connected five members met, on May 25, 1913, underscore his Jewish origins. psychoanalysis but, when the time here anymore. to psychoanalytic theory – those that Freud gave each of them a signet ring. Lessing’s “Nathan the Wise,” which came, was able to find the right dis- It is the elegant home in Hampstead depict the myths of the sphinx and of And so, for more than a decade, and was published in 1799 and is set in the tance from him and claim his intellec- where Freud spent his final years that Oedipus the king – along with others far from the eyes of the other mem- medieval Land of Israel, is consid- tual sovereignty. Jones would take the contains all his personal effects. The The archaeological that Freud left shrouded in mystery. bers of the association, Freud’s five ered a turning point in the relations side of in her dispute crowning glories of the London house They added new layers and dimensions “knights of the sacred order” conduct- between Jews and Germans. Nathan with , and didn’t hesitate are the library, the study and the metaphor first crops – spatial, visual, aesthetic, even tactile ed regular correspondence and held the Wise tells the sultan Saladin a to tell Freud his doubts about the qual- splendid collection of antiquities, all of – to the highly developed verbal imagi- secret meetings, whose declared pur- fable about a ring that confers divine ity of the analysis he conducted on his them a gesture to the great person that up in Freud’s writings in nation of the inventor of the “talking pose was to demarcate a clear bound- grace upon the person who wears it. daughter. Otto Rank left the psycho- Freud was. But the London museum, 1892: ‘This procedure cure.” Freud listens or writes and his ary between psychoanalysis worthy of The ring is passed down from father analytic movement, immigrated to which “hit the jackpot,” comes across finger caresses a statuette of the god the name and other approaches. to best-loved son, and when it comes America and is remembered as one more as homage to Freud’s ego ideal was one of clearing away Thoth – patron of medicine, witchcraft As functional as the “arrangements to a father with three sons all of whom of the most crazed short-term thera- and particularly to the father ideal of the pathogenic psychical and writing in Egyptian mythology – committee” of the psychoanalytic he loves equally, he promises the ring pists that modern psychotherapy has Anna Freud, who managed her father’s in the form of a baboon. Occasionally movement was, however, it would be to each of them. To keep his promise, known. memorial industry with a high hand. material layer by layer, and he gets up and invites a patient to ac- no exaggeration to also fault this small the father creates two perfect copies Sandor Ferenczi placed psycho- I ran my fingers across the ring we liked to compare it with company him to the next room, to show band for the tendency of psychoana- of the original ring, so it is no longer analysis on a pre-Oedipal path that bearing the image of Nike, the god- her a statuette that their conversation lysts in the post-Freud era to be drawn possible to know which of the three is underscores the connection with the dess of victory, that Rosenfeld be- the technique of excavating evoked for him associatively. to the courts of psychoanalytic rebbes. the authentic one. On his deathbed he mother in early childhood, and chal- queathed to the Israel Museum, and Keepers of the seal. The birth of The story of the “secret committee” awards one ring to each son and dies. lenges the fundamentals of Freud’s which curator Wilhelm only recently a buried city.’ the International Psychoanalytical is known to those familiar with the his- The brothers argue among themselves psychoanalytic technique. And Karl identified as a Freud ring. The magic Association in 1910 reflected the pro- tory of the psychoanalytic movement. about which of them received the real Abraham, who died prematurely, saw began to do its work, as in the “Indiana cess of organization and expansion in In contrast, the story of the generous ring, but a wise judge warns them that himself as Freud’s intellectual equal Jones” stories in which an ordinary which psychoanalysis was caught up in and demanding gifts that Freud gave it is impossible to make a decision, be- and expressed his sovereignty in a se- object that was in a type of deep sleep “My old and dirty gods.” The ar- the years preceding World War I. But his associates continues to be marked cause no one can disprove the hypoth- is uncovered and is revealed to wield chaeological metaphor first crops up Freud, deeply disappointed with such by collective repression to this day. Al- esis that all three rings are actually great influence. Psychoanalysis – a in Freud’s writings in his description brilliant pupils as Carl Gustav Jung, most every analyst whom I told about counterfeit. The judge suggests that familiar inner object that has accom- of the method by which he treated the who rejected the cornerstones of his the rings that Freud awarded to his each of the sons should live his life as Almost every analyst whom panied me for many years – and the woman he called Elisabeth von R., be- theoretical construct, sought a way to successors reacted with a mixture of though he received the original ring ring – a foreign object I placed on my ginning in 1892: “This procedure was ensure a certain degree of agreement surprise, embarrassment and derisive- from his father. I told about the rings Freud finger for a brief moment – became one of clearing away the pathogenic among his collaborators. ness. “Yes, right, he had a thing with Freud’s search for a preferred heir one. The foreign object and the inter- psychical material layer by layer, Sandor Ferenczi, from Hungary, rings. I knew that, but I never thought ended in bitter disappointment: Jung awarded to his successors nalized object merged. and we liked to compare it with the had an original proposal for ensuring about it.” That’s the sound of repres- left the psychoanalytic movement reacted with a mixture of Psychoanalysts frequently reflect technique of excavating a buried city.” the future of psychoanalysis: Freud sion. about a year before the formation of on the question of what the object of Archaeology also influenced the per- himself would psychoanalyze a select With this ring. In one of his passion- the secret society. It’s plausible, then, surprise, embarrassment psychoanalysis is, or what a psycho- ception of the psychoanalyst’s role. He group from among his students, and ate love letters to his fiancée, Martha that the implicit message in award- and derisiveness. ‘Yes, analytic object is. Can it be that ques- was expected to consider himself less they would be the elite that would lead Bernays, Freud mentions a ring she ing non-identical rings to five pupils tions relating to the nature of mental a physician and more an archaeolo- the psychoanalytic movement after his received from her mother. The ring re- was that none of them was the “chosen he had a thing with rings. representations, and to the location, gist of the mind, uncovering the truth death. Freud preferred to accede to minds Freud of the “fable of the rings” son” and that they must keep watch I knew that, but never in reality or in fantasy, of primary ob- concealed in the depths of his patients’ the suggestion of his British colleague at the heart of Gotthold Ephraim Less- over one another, overcome the ten- jects – theoretical and clinical ques- unconscious. Ernest Jones and formed a committee ing’s play “Nathan the Wise.” He sums sions between them and function as thought about it.’ That’s the tions that occupied Freud during the In 1856, the year Freud was born, whose role would be to ensure that no up for Martha the moral of the play; lightning rods for the storms raging years of his self-analysis, when he Troy was a myth and archaeology was member of the International Psychoan- the question of whether a ring passed in the psychoanalytic world. sound of repression. began to collect antiquities – impelled a speculative realm of knowledge. By alytic Association would express public down as an inheritance is authentic Not one of the rings that Freud him to create rings from ancient seal the time of his death, in 1939, archae- disagreement with the principal tenets or not, is of no significance. Based on granted his knights of the sacred or- stones in his collection? Is it possible ology was considered a science and of Freudian theory. this letter, Lessing’s fable of the ring der was “real” in the fetishistic sense, that Freud already knew the answer museums of the European capitals Freud was undoubtedly ambivalent can be seen as an additional source and each was meant to derive its sig- ries of innovative articles. Even Max to this, too? That precisely an old-new exhibited precious objects excavated about the psychoanalytic oligarchy he of inspiration for Freud in handing nificance from its wearer; from who- Eitingon, whose loyalty to the profes- object like a signet ring, which would in every part of the world. In the first had created with his own hands: He in- out the five rings. It wasn’t the only ever was willing to view it as a symbol sor was unbounded, found a way to be passed from one generation of ana- half of the 20th century, even a private, of the love of psychoanalysis and not part from him. In 1933, shortly after lysts to the next and would end up one impecunious collector like Freud could as a symbol of the love of the primal the Nazis came to power, he emigrated day in Jerusalem, would turn out to gradually build up a collection of ar- father of that discipline. The only per- from to Palestine, to Freud’s be more appropriate than any manu- chaeological artifacts that today would son who saw the ring as a symbol of pa- displeasure, and founded a new psy- script, hat or cane to act as a ferry that be worth its weight in gold. ternal love – and rightly so – was Anna choanalytical society in Jerusalem. would transmit something of the qual- It was only after World War I that Freud. She admitted to her father in Psychoanalytic object. A certain ity of the psychoanalytic object that Egypt, Greece and other countries one of her letters that she almost gave tension prevailed in the room of the feels most at home in the unconscious, began to restrict the removal of an- one of the two rings she received from exhibition’s curators, Morag Wilhelm that is, in a foreign country? tiquities excavated in their territory. him as a gift to the psychoanalyst who and Dudi Mevorach, after I tried on A further hint about the meaning For long afterward, the antiquities had helped her, Lou Andreas-Salome. the ring found in the Israel Museum’s of the rings can be found in a letter markets in Europe were flooded with The theatrical gesture embodied in storerooms, which turned out to be the that Eva Rosenfeld attached to her items robbed from excavations across the granting of the rings from Freud’s one Freud gave to a patient, the ana- donation to the museum: “On January the globe. collection of ancient gems is certainly lyst Eva Rosenfeld. Until that moment 5, 1930, which was my 38th birthday, In December 1896, two months af- consistent with the authoritarianism I had observed the objects owned by Professor Sigmund Freud surprised ter his father’s death, Freud bought the latent in his personality. At the same Freud with equanimity. I’d always pre- me with the precious gift of his ring first objects of what would become his time, it’s difficult to think of any gift ferred the Freud house in Vienna over […] Throughout the years, the ring collection, and wrote to his friend Wil- other than an ancient signet ring that the Freud house in London. Hardly has been a very precious possession of helm Fliess that he had decorated his would better epitomize the dialectical any items from his estate remain in mine. I am now getting on for 86, and study with two plaster replicas from tension between monolithic and di- the Vienna apartment where he lived I wish to leave it to the country which Florence, which were a wellspring of versified, between theoretical mono- and worked for most of his life, but is our original home.” Rosenfeld, like rejuvenation and consolation for him. theism and cultural polytheism, and his spirit pervades it to this day. I like Freud, never visited this country. Her A few months later Fliess received between radicalism and patriarchal- working in the library in one of the choice to send the ring she received from Freud an emotional interim sum- ism – all of which were revealed to rooms in the apartment. A visitor will from Freud “home,” to Jerusalem, can mary of the self-analysis he had begun everyone who was exposed to Freud’s find Freud’s walking cane on display be interpreted as an expression of a as one of the means of dealing with the personality and which continues to ac- there, and one of his hats. The two ste- wish to restore it to the unconscious. loss of his father: “I have found, in my A 1922 photo of members of the “secret committee” Freud created, whose purpose company psychoanalysis to this day. reotypical museum artifacts that were own case too, falling in love with the was to demarcate a clear boundary between psychoanalysis worthy of the name and The creator of psychoanalysis given to the Vienna museum as a gift Dr. Eran Rolnik is a psychoanalyst, mother and jealousy of the father, and other approaches. Freud Museum/London didn’t really surround himself with by Anna Freud only underscore what psychiatrist and historian.