Today in History—April 25: Dr. Freud’s First Private Practice Opens

A vintage black-and-white portrait of a young Sigmund Freud seated next to a woman standing with her hand on his shoulder, marking the period when Freud opened his practice. — April 25, 1886: No one showed up for Sigmund Freud's first foray into private practice

“Dr. Sigmund Freud, docent for nervous diseases at the university, has returned from his study trip to Paris and Berlin and has consulting hours at Rathausstrasse No. 7, from 1 to 2:30.”

So read the ad for Freud’s first foray into private practice as a neurologist.

No one showed up.

Freud sat in his new office in Vienna, frustrated and desperate for a stream of patients that would translate to a steady income—so that he could finally marry his fiancée, Martha Bernays. He considered moving to New York. (He changed his mind when a friend pointed out that he’d have even fewer prospects over there.)

Freud had recently abandoned his neurophysiological research to pursue the more lucrative medical practice, a choice of practicality. He considered specializing in surgery, internal medicine, or psychiatry. Meanwhile, he and Bernays exchanged letters.

Their passion for each other is clear, and the letters are often read as romantic, threaded with yearning over the course of their four-year engagement, which they largely spent apart, with him studying abroad or in Vienna and her living with family in Hamburg, Germany. But the letters also show Freud outlining what sort of wife he expected Bernays to be: devoted, deferential, and wholly dedicated to making a stable and supportive home.

Fun Fact

Martha Bernays’s nickname for her husband was “Professor.”

Slowly, thanks to the support of friends and colleagues—through direct financial support and referrals and introductions—Freud did make his private practice viable. By 1890 he was knee-deep in patients, and he was fascinated by their neuroses. His practice is where he would build and refine many of the theories he’s known for today, including repression, the unconscious, and the role of desire.

And he did marry Bernays, in September 1886. They had six children, and Bernays ruled the household just as Freud had wanted. They lived together until Freud’s death. By most accounts it was a happy union, though the two—him an atheist and her an Orthodox Jew—vehemently disagreed about religion.

After Freud’s death, Bernays went back to the synagogue and back to lighting candles on the Sabbath. You don’t need psychoanalysis to understand that.