MEIN SCHWARZER TEUFEL – MY BLACK DEVIL

The decades-long correspondence between Sigmund Freud and his daughter Anna is far more than an exchange of letters between family members: it is a workspace, a refuge, and a place of tension and challenge where closeness, distance, care for others, loyalty, and separation all play out.

Devid Striesow and Gioia Osthoff explore the relationship between these two figures, who have played such a major part in shaping our thinking. It is a relationship in which love and power, dependence and emancipation are inextricably intertwined. In this piece we see Anna Freud – not only as the daughter of a genius, but also as a thinker, scientist, and pioneer in her own right – grow from child to woman. Sigmund Freud shows himself to be an approachable father as he accompanies her on her journey.