Uncovering Freud, the Collector

Red-figure hydria depicting the myth of Oedipus and the Sphinx from the Appollonia group

Bronze Luristan standard finial with a man restraining two lion-like animals, which face outwards

Figure of Sphinx, terracotta on wooden plinth. The figurine is apparently solid, and was originally covered in white slip, now discoloured. The Sphinx sits solidly on her haunches, facing forward. Her breasts are prominent, her legs and paws sturdily modeled. Her body is slim, and her wings are precisely modeled and neatly curled above her back.

As an undergraduate, Richard Armstrong read several of the Great Books of the Western World. While he revered Plato’s “The Republic,” one favorite stood out: “The Interpretation of Dreams” by Sigmund Freud. Armstrong was intrigued by his revolutionary thinking that still makes Freud the topic of conversation and debate, but Armstrong was even more interested in another aspect of the classic work.

“I was struck by how often Freud mentioned the ancient world,” he says. “In the dreams book, he references how there’s an ancient theory that dreams have meaning.”

The future professor did some research and discovered Freud was an avid collector of ancient artifacts. He amassed his vast collection, which included everything from statues and busts to Neolithic tools and Egyptian mummy bandages, by visiting markets in Vienna, Salzburg, Florence and Rome.

“He was very interested in archaeology and sociology and anthropology, and I was fascinated by how those interests could have influenced his work,” Armstrong adds. “Those things stayed with me for a while.”

Armstrong is now an associate professor of classical studies at the University of Houston, and his interest in Freud’s collection has only intensified. Following the publication of his 2006 book “A Compulsion for Antiquity: Freud and the Ancient World,” Armstrong met fellow Freud researchers from London and Israel. They formed a collaborative network that would ultimately lead to “Freud’s Antiquity: Object, Idea, Desire,” a critically acclaimed exhibition that ran for five months earlier this year at the Freud Museum in London.

The museum is in the same Hampstead home in which the Freud family settled after being chased out of Austria by the Nazis. With help from Marie Bonaparte, the great grand- niece of Napoleon, Freud’s collection also made it to London. Eighty-five years later, the books and artifacts represent what Armstrong calls “a very dynamic period” in Freud’s life. Specifically, the professor and his colleagues curated an objects-based exhibition that focuses on six distinct periods in the development of Freud’s thought from the 1880s to the 1930s. The display also included a robust multimedia component, which featured videos, podcasts, photos of rare objects and a bibliography of suggested reading.

“This is the first exhibit in a while that looks at his collections, and it can be overwhelming, so we took a minimalist approach. We took a few items and paired them with moments of his development that help [the visitor] see what he was thinking while he was becoming the thinker we know today.”

It helps that Freud’s study remains as it was when he died, including his couch that is now synonymous with therapy.

That couch is surrounded by book-lined walls and ancient statuettes, as well as figurines and tools from Freud’s various hunts and connections. On the museum’s second floor, artifacts are matched with key statements or memorable pieces from Freud’s work. The result is a new understanding of both Freud’s thought development and the close links between archaeology and psychoanalysis.

For instance, in “The Interpretation of Dreams,” Freud presents a theory that a dream is an extension of a wish. In a separate letter reviewed by Armstrong and his team, Freud wishes he still had possession of a vase once special to him. Therefore, in an object-based discussion of Freud’s thoughts on dreams, the curatorial team included an Estruscan pot: a symbol of the vase Freud wished he still had. That selection by Armstrong and his colleagues is emblematic of the exhibit’s broader thesis. As Freud saw it, archaeology and psychoanalysis are both forms of excavation that, over time, reveal more and more about who people are and who they’ve been. He made this comparison even clearer in his “Interpretation of Dreams,” the book that first ignited Armstrong’s interest in Freud’s thinking.

“I arrived at a procedure which I later elevated to a method,” Freud wrote in the book. “The procedure of clearing away, layer by layer, the pathogenic psychical material, which we like to compare with the technique of excavating a buried city.”

This unique exhibition lives on in the detailed digital complement curated by Armstrong and his colleagues, and the UH professor plans to continue his excavation of Freud’s thinking. He is currently finishing a monograph on theory and theatricality, which will explore the resurgence of ancient drama popular on theatre stages in the late 19th century—and fueled Freud’s interest in the story of Oedipus. He also has ideas for future exhibits, including one that focuses on Freud’s interest in anthropology.

“Freud was deeply interested in the persistence of the past, which is a core tenet of psychoanalysis and archaeology,” he says. “Archaeology is a pledge that antiquity is real. Here it is, with us."