Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud and his stay at the Schweizerhaus

The father of psychoanalysis and explorer of the depths of our sexual drives was, as Ernest Jones, Freud's first biographer, wrote, himself "to a very unusual degree monogamous". According to Jones, his wife Martha was "certainly the only woman in his love life". C.G. Jung, on the other hand, claimed that his teacher and later rival had a secret affair with Martha's sister Minna. Most Freudians dismiss this as malicious gossip. What is true?

A handwritten entry in the guest book of the "Schweizerhaus" hotel in Maloja dated 13 August 1898, "Dr. Sigm. Freud and wife" solves the mystery. The woman with whom Freud shared room no. 11 in the "Schweizerhaus" could not have been Mrs. Freud. On the same day, the psychiatrist sent his wife in Vienna a picture postcard in which he praised the glaciers, mountains and lakes of the Engadine, which he admired together with his companion. The companion of the then 42-year-old was his 33-year-old sister-in-law Minna.