It's been a while since I started working on my application for dual citizenship with Austria. So long that I forgot I had already filled out the preliminary forms and emailed them to the Austrian Consulate in Los Angeles. So long that I let my hair go Pandemic Grey and I am now I'm obsessing: If I put those grey-tressed images on my new Austrian passport (which I do not
Psychology
Freud’s Parrot: My Love-Hate Relationship with Austria
I'm thinking about applying for dual citizenship with Austria. As of September 1, it is available to direct descendants of those killed or forced to leave the country when it became Nazified. I easily qualify on both sides of my family, with a mother and father born in Austria and residing there in 1938, not to mention grandparents who were unable to escape. As "dual"
Freud’s World & A London Reunion
There's been a lot going on behind the scenes in the Freud's Butcher universe, but it's like the proverbial tree falling in the forest: If a blogger doesn't post about events, did they really happen? They did, and they will--and here's the proof. Psychology Today I've made many forays into discussions of Freud's life -- in order to provide context for my family's
What’s Freud Got to Do With It? An Earlier Look at My Family History
In this home stretch of the family history writing challenge, I've been thinking about a time when I dipped my toes into the dark sea of my parents' past--and then retreated. The Second Generation Revelation It was the late 1970s. I was working on a doctorate at NYU and seeing a therapist, Mildred,* for anxiety and mild depression. I didn't feel like I was getting a lot out
Crowdfunding Freud: Help Give Vienna’s Most Famous Jew His Due
In his introduction to Berggasse 19, a compilation of photographs that Edmund Engelman took of Sigmund Freud's home and office just before the father of psychoanalysis fled Nazi-occupied Vienna, biographer Peter Gay detailed Freud's symbolic absence from Austria's capital after World War II. Noting the lack of tourist brochures, street names, and statues celebrating Freud in
If Freud Celebrated Sukkot
Jews around the world recently celebrated Sukkot, a joyous holiday that follows five days after the very solemn Yom Kippur; it has its roots as a harvest/agricultural festival. I won't attempt to explain it in detail here; if you want to read all about it, including a discussion of how to pronounce it, here's a link from Judaism 101. The relevant part is that people
7 Things You Didn’t Know About Sigmund Freud, Including His Eyeglass Prescription
I'd be hard pressed to guess how many pages have been devoted to the life and times of Sigmund Freud. Hundreds of thousands? Millions? I've contributed more than a hundred here alone. But there are still a few things about the father of psychoanalysis that most people don't know, 75 years after his death, details about his everyday life that get lost in the scholarship. To
#FunnyFreudFriday: Toying Around With History
Yes, it's been a long time since I posted in the Funny Freud Friday category--or at all, come to think of it--but the timing was right. As a freelance writer, my budget doesn't include the many Freud tchotkes I covet, so you can imagine how excited I was to find that I could use my credits at a local used bookstore for a Sigmund Freud plush toy -- officially, The Unemployed
Karl Lueger vs Sigmund Freud: A Disturbing Contrast in Vienna’s Legacies
For most of my week in Vienna, my experience of the city was so positive as to be a bit surreal. I remembered Vienna from the early 1970s -- the only time I'd visited before -- as being gloomy and dour. I also imagined that, given what I'd learned over the last few years about my family's history, I would be coping with a lot of difficult emotions. Not so. The
Dueling Desserts, Plaster Poets, & Sigmund Freud: Vienna’s Cafe Culture
I've touched on the fact that my family members dabbled in sweets as well as meats in my last two posts, which involved my cousin Curt Allina, who lived across the street from Sigmund Freud and who later put the heads on PEZ. But the Kornmehl family also had a direct connection with a quintessentially Viennese concern: Coffeehouses. (For some background, see From Meat to
More Amazing Austrian Inventions! PEZ & Freud, Revisited
Mea culpa. In my last post, I talked about my cousin Curt Allina, who lived across the street from Freud when he was a boy and who has been credited with putting the heads on the PEZ dispensers. It was subsequently pointed out to me that, in the context of that discussion, I mistakenly identified the following item as a packet of PEZ, the kind that is put into PEZ dispensers
Vienna Public Transit: A (Rather Wordy) Photo Essay
This will shock and amaze all who know me and my tendency to take terrible pictures/break cameras but I didn't do too badly this time, so I thought I'd post a few photo essays rather than try to write up all my experiences more formally. We'll see. I suspect there will be more words than pictures, in spite of my best intentions. Overview I love public transportation,
Live from Vienna….It’s Saturday Night!
I've been in Vienna three days now...wait, make that four. As you may have suspected, none of the dire things I was worried about came to pass. I got an aisle seat on my overnight flight. I couldn't sleep anyway, but not because I was worried about climbing over someone to go to the bathroom. My luggage didn't get lost. It's heavy, but I'm glad I packed all the stuff I
Confessions of a Travel-Challenged Travel Writer
I have never been very good at the travel part of being a travel writer. As I've mentioned, I was primarily a travel journalist before I got a dog and became a dog writer and then found out that I was the great niece of Sigmund Freud's butcher and started this blog. That biographical tidbit wasn't especially relevant--until now, because I'm headed to Vienna. I thought
Inspiring My Vienna Visit: A Talk About Freud & Oscar Nemon
Several people have asked: What finally spurred you to visit Vienna this June? Good question. I've been wanting to go for more than 2½ years, ever since I found out about the connection between my great uncle, Siegmund Kornmehl, and Vienna's Sigmund Freud Museum, but had been dragging my heels. Money, ambivalence, pet care...I always had an excuse not to go. With the need