Rape
Group sex and rape
As Freud's close associate, and biographer, Ernest Jones, in his Freud's biography revealed, Freud's sexual constitution was not exclusively masculine after all, to "hunt in couples" means sharing one's gratification with someone of one's own sex.
Apparently, Freud engaged both in group sex and rape. And the reference to hunting is an obvious allusion to Freud's predatory behaviour. Whether Freud hunted together with Jones is unknown, but, how else would Jones know about Freud's preference for this kind of pursuit?
* Jones, Ernest, Sigmund Freud: Life and Work: The Formative Years and the Great Discoveries, 1856-1900, (1953, p. 11).
Freud the deflowerer
In an anonymous essay, Screen Memories, later identified as its author, Freud recounted a fake story of three children playing in a dandelion meadow. The children were Freud, between the age of two and three, his nephew John, and John's sister, Pauline. The children were collecting dandelions. This is how Freud described in allegoric form what happened: The little girl has the best bunch; and, as though by mutual agreement, we - the two boys - fall on her and snatch away her flowers. She runs up the meadow in tears ... the peasant-woman cuts the loaf with a long knife. (1)
As Freud pointed out, the whole scene was a screen, thus a cover-up, for what really happened.
As a matter of course, the adult Freud would not remember what happened at that early age. As he admitted in his letter to Eduard of September 9, 1875, Freud didn't have any memory of either John or Pauline, who lived in England since early childhood.
Unknown Pauline
This is what Freud, aged 19, wrote to Eduard from Manchester: Unknown to you, and until recently, to me, are two charming nieces, Pauline, who is nineteen, and Bertha, who is seventeen. And since Pauline was "unknown" to Freud when he met her in England, the whole childhood scene is a fake.
But how can we know, when the scene happened?
A man of science
At the time of the scene, Freud, as he recounted, was a newly-fledged man of science. (2) Thus the real scene took place after he obtained the doctor's degree in 1881. At the time, John was 26, Freud and Pauline 25. Freud even provided another clue about the dating for the rape, stating that, it was during this same period that he first made the acquaintance of the Alps.
As Freud explained, the alpine flowers ...were a stamp giving the date.
Moreover, he assured, that the scene is genuine.) (3) So, the scene is not a figment of Freud's bizarre imagination but a recollection of a true event.
`Thus, if we can find out when Freud went to the Alps, then we can also date the event. It is Freud's authorised biographer, Jones, who revealed that,
In June 1883 there was the trip ... to Hungary, and the month afterwards [thus, in July] his [Freud's] visit to Gmunden to get his first glimpse of real Alpine scenery. (Gmunden is a town in the Austrian Alps.)
And since Freud, for the first time, went to see the Alps in July, thus his trip to England would have taken place sometime during the summer of 1983 when Freud was 27.
Deflowering Pauline aka group rape
So what was the whole essay about? And the snatching of the flowers from Pauline? As Freud unashamedly explained,
Taking flowers away from a girl means to deflower her. (4)
So this is what happened to Pauline. She was group-raped by Freud, and her brother, John.
As if this confession wasn't enough, Freud also provided a symbolic depiction of the rape in the form of a woman cutting bread with a long knife. A knife in Freudian symbolism represents a penis, the bread represents the vagina, and the action of cutting represents a rape.
No wonder Freud published this essay anonymously.
(1) SE 3, p. 311.
(2) SE 3, p. 314.
(3) SE 3, p. 315.
(4) SE 3, p. 316.
The beast in action...
The raping beast
Writing to Hermann Struck on November 7, 1914, and referring to the artist's lithograph, of himself, that the artist was working on, Freud remarked, something else has struck me as alien. ... the exaggerated opening of the mouth. It seems, Freud wasn't too happy with the way the artist portrayed him.
In trying to discover where these features could come from, Freud explained that he, remembered the beautiful, malicious orchid, the Orchibestia karlsbadiensis. There was no orchid by this name, but, as Freud explained, the name would produce a hybrid phenomenon (as it is called in The Interpretation of Dreams) of Jew and orchid!
And, referring to the time spent on being portrayed, as well as the artist's (wasted) effort, Freud added: Perhaps we would have made better use of each other’s company in Karlsbad. (1)
To anyone who knows anything about Freud, it is immediately apparent that Freud’s message contains a hidden allusion, but to what? Since no orchid by this fanciful name exists, and since Freud refers to Jew, the hybrid tag, Orchibestia, apparently refers, not to the imaginary flower but, to Freud himself.
Orchibestial Freud
So what parts does the hybrid word Orchibestia consist of? The word is a composite of two components, the word, orchi, derived from the word "orchis”, the Greek term for a testicle, and the Latin word "bestia" denoting a beast. The second part of the bizarre expression, karlsbadiensis, refers simply to, Karlsbad, thus, the place where Freud had met with the artist.
Thus, the literal translation of the hybrid word would be "testicular beast". The connection of the flower to the testicle is intriguing, but it doesn’t make much sense. Not even Freud would be that weird to make this bizarre connection. As it turns out, the name of the flower has its origin in Greek mythology. According to the legend, on one occasion, Orchis, the son of a nymph and a satyr, participated in a festival of the god of wine, Dionysus. Having drank too much wine, Orchis attempted to rape a priestess of Dionysus.
As a punishment, Orchis was torn apart. His father’s prayers to Gods to restore the rapist weren’t successful. Instead, the gods changed Orchis into a flower to this day wearing his name.
Having had a classical education, Freud, of course, would have been acquainted with the ancient legend. But how does this explanation relate to the Freudian hybrid expression? Now, the beautiful, malicious orchid, the Orchibestia, can be transformed into, “the beautiful, malicious rapist-beast”.
Sexual neologisms
Moreover, the reference in the dream book to hybrid words can shed some light on what Freud was hinting at. As he wrote, where one finds incomprehensible neologisms one may suspect combinations of components having a sexual significance. (2) Tick!
(Notably, in the Standard Edition of Freud's works, the passage has the opposite meaning! It states, In the case of unintelligible neologisms, ... they may NOT (!) be put together from components with a sexual meaning. (3) Whether it was Freud or his translator that diametrically changed the meaning of the passage is anyone's guess.)
Moreover, Freud explained that the dream-work ... creates very similar ‘schizophrenic’ utterances or neologisms. (4) As it is apparent, Freud didn't need to be asleep to create schizophrenic neologisms. And if so, what does it say about Freud?
And in yet another, even more relevant in Freud’s unique case, passage, Freud explained that, Absurd combinations of ideas … are the main characteristics … of insanity. (5) Another tick!
Credit to him, Freud managed to correctly diagnose himself.
(1) Freud, Sigmund, The letters of Sigmund Freud, 1960, pp. 306-307).
(2) Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams, (1913, pp. 247-248).
(3) SE 5, pp. 356-358.
(4) SE 14, p. 199.
(5) Freud, (1913, p. 77).
#MeToo
Freud's rapist's mentality is apparent from the statement he made in the letter to the writer, Stefan Zweig, on July 20, 1938, only a year before his death. Even though impotent for many years, and hardly able to eat, talk and walk, basically a living dead, the old satyr wasn't hiding his rapist philosophy. As he told Zweig, allegedly referring to his pseudo-science: Psychoanalysis is like a woman who wants to be seduced but knows she will be underrated unless she offers resistance. *
This was Freud's rationale for raping women on the couch, as long as he could using the genitals, and once his sexual organ failed him for good, by oral penetration. It was fun as long it lasted until Freud's jaw operations, forced him to sit behind the couch rather than kneeling in front of it.
* Freud, Sigmund, Letters of Sigmund Freud, (1960, p. 447).
Serial rapist
It is not uncommon for a serial killer to be also a serial rapist. Ted Bundy, Joseph James DeAngelo, Pablo Vargas, just to name a few, were both engaged in rape and murder. Thus, for a discussion of Freud's murderous personality, it is of important to look at his other sexual offending. The fact is that since his youth Freud was a serial (group) rapist, repeating this type of violent behaviour throughout his life. As a matter of course, most of his victims are unknown.
Besides rapes of the members of his family and acquaintance, Freud sexually abused his patients. Let's see what we can find out about this issue in Freud's letters.
This is the advice concerning an anonymous girl, aged 17, in the letter of July 17, 1873, Freud offered his friend, Eduard Silberstein:
Empty her basket
My ... advice to you is to intercept Rhea Silvia tonight and to empty her basket thoroughly - since you will scarcely be able to consume those delicacies with me, you may eat them on my behalf. ... I ... assign to you what is mine, and call upon you to consume whatever I might have eaten up myself. (1)
Thus, regretting he could not take part in the procedure, Freud encouraged Eduard to ambush the girl and rape her on his own. As Freud intimated, he had already done so in the past. In the letter, Freud uses symbolism that is his hallmark: a basket full of delicacies denoting a vagina, consumption, and eating, a reference to sexual intercourse. And Rhea Silvia was not a real name but Freud's code name for the girl.
So who was Rhea Silvia? In Roman mythology, a vestal virgin, Rhea Silvia, was seduced by the god Mars. Thus, Freud was putting his formal classical education to good use. Interestingly, the editor bizarrely claimed that Silvia Rhea was, a girl met selling fruit in the forest. (2) Selling fruit in the forest? It must be the worst place for opening this kind of business.
Barred forever more
Could another rape be the reason why Freud revealed to Eduard in the letter of August 2, 1873, that he, cannot come to Roznau - where Eduard lived - that road is barred to me forevermore. (3) To be barred from coming to town, Freud must have committed a very serious offense.
And, since, as it appears, the matter wasn't reported to the police, could it have been a rape? At the time, the family of the raped, and thus shamed, woman, would prefer to keep silent about it, which doesn't mean that it was forgiven or forgotten.
(1) Freud, Sigmund, The Letters of Sigmund Freud to Eduard Silberstein, 1871-1881, (1991, p. 23).
(2) Freud, (1991, p. 24).
(3) Freud, (1991, p. 29).
Rosa: had her sexual orientation at 14
Rosa's incestuous education
Would Freud refrain from having sex with his sisters? Or rape them?
The answer is in the letter of October 22-23, 1874, in which the "loving" brother informs Eduard, about Rosa, Freud's four years younger sister, stating, I have taken charge of the rest of her education and am sacrificing one of my lectures to that end. The gods cannot possibly have rejoiced at this sacrifice as much as I did. *
That was a very short education, indeed, in sexual matters, no doubt. possibly repeated on other occasions.
It is not known if Rosa also enjoyed the encounter with his older brother as much as he did.
Notably, Rosa born on March 21, 1860, was only 14, at the time, which makes Freud, aged 18, an incestuous paedophile!
* Freud, Sigmund, The Letters of Sigmund Freud to Eduard Silberstein, 1871-1881, (1991, p. 67).
Showing the tongue...
Anna's incestuous play
Would Freud, being an equal opportunity pervert, refrain from having "rejoiced" educating his older sister, too? No way! Suffering from a compulsion to repeat, most certainly, he wouldn't be able to resist the temptation. This is how Freud in his dream book recounted this particular lesson:
My father ... once gave my elder sister and myself a book containing coloured plates (the book was a narrative of a journey through Persia) in order that we might destroy it (leaf by leaf). (1)
The hidden meaning of the story is sinister. The reference to Persia (German Persien) reminds one of perversion, and the tearing out of plates from a book relates to a violent sexual encounter. In Freud’s vocabulary of symbols, a book is a woman.
Notably, no doubt to disorient the reader, Freud was lying about the age of the "children" playing with the book. Even though he just stated that he was playing with his elder sister, in the next sentence he contradicted himself, stating, I was at the time five years old, and my sister less than three, (1) thus, this way, making his sister two years younger than him. This is the usual Freudian way of confusing the reader used by hypnotists - and Freud was one.
Being the firstborn child of his mother, Amalia, Freud didn't have an elder sister, but he had a younger sister, Anna, born on December 1, 1858, thus two years and seven months younger than Freud. Assuming, this was a description of a disguised rape, it would be carried out at a mature age rather than in Freud's childhood. Whether it was his father that instigated the rape is not known but, taking into account the incestuous character of the family, it is not impossible.
Freud's bibliophilia
There's more. Thus, Freud explained that when he became a student, he developed a conspicuous fondness for collecting and possessing books. (2) And he clarified that, this childish scene [is a] “screen or concealing memory” for my subsequent bibliophilia. (3) So what is a screen in Freudian newspeak? Just as he explained in his Screen Memory, a screen is a cover-up for a real event, the fake memory of children playing in a field a cover-up for an adult rape.
So, what is Freud's bibliophilia, if a book signifies a woman? At the time, "honourable" women wouldn't, as a matter of course, in part because of the fear of catching syphilis, have sex outside of marriage. So how could Freud collect his "books"? The answer is obvious, by frequenting brothels.
This fact, in turn, explains Freud's confession that, when he was seventeen, he ran up a very considerable account at the bookseller's. (3)
Of course, at 17, having barely finished high school, let alone not yet having begun his studies, Freud wasn't collecting real books. On the other hand, as an early bloomer, already at this age, he was frequenting the houses of ill-repute. And if he wanted to play, he had to pay.
Freud's vaginal hobbies
And if this was not clear enough, Freud adds that this is a hobby alluded to ... in connection with cyclamen and artichoke. (3)
Very intriguing. What has Freud's bibliophilia to do with a flower and a vegetable? The German name for the cyclamen is Alpenveilchen, and it consists of two parts, "Alpen" which denotes the mountains, the Alps, a symbolic erection, and "veilchen" thus "the violet", close related to a more sinister word "violence".
The innocent, childish story about the destruction of the book with Anna's willing (?) cooperation, reappeared elsewhere in a new version of the dream book.
What about the artichoke? In Freud's over-sexed mind, it would symbolise a vagina with its labia that he could literally pull out.
This time there's no reference to Freud's sister, but as Freud explained, this memory was related to cyclamen.
This is how the story was told this time: when I was five years old my father allowed me to destroy a book embellished with coloured plates. And what about the artichoke?
As Freud recounted he jokingly called the artichoke, his favourite flower, and he was enjoying pulling [the book] to pieces like an artichoke, leaf by leaf.
For Freud a flower is a symbol for a vagina, and, pulling it to pieces is an obvious euphemism for a deflowering, and if done by violence, a rape! As Freud explained in The Screen Memories, Taking flowers away from a girl means to deflower her.
Freud was obsessed with deflowering, which explains not only the choice of profession but also the preferential, even violent, treatment of virgins like his niece, Pauline, if he could find any,
(1) Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams, (1913, p. 76).
(2) Freud, (1913, op. 76-77).
(3) Freud, (1913, p. 77).