La influencia de las hermanas Bernays en la vida de Freud

Abstract

Mucho ha sido escrito y reflexionado acerca de Sigmund Freud y el desarrollo histórico del psicoanálisis fuera y dentro de la comunidad científica. Desde esta perspectiva, como hombre, original pensador y sagaz clínico se ha debatido su rol en la historia del psicoanálisis, y especialmente, en la historia del saber freudiano. De forma diferente ha sucedido con quienes le acompañaron en su devenir vital, esposa, hijos y familiares, por citar los más cercanos, cuya vida ha quedado ensombrecida tras la sombra del gigante, del genio que nos enseñó entre otras cosas la vía regia para acceder al inconsciente analizando los sueños o el funcionamiento del aparato psíquico con su modelo de mente. De quienes le apoyaron en su vida y formaron parte de su círculo familiar más íntimo, nos centramos en este trabajo en su esposa Martha y su cuñada Minna. La primera, con quien se casó en 1886, dándole seis hijos y una estabilidad para trabajar y despreocuparse de las tareas cotidianas, mientras la segunda siendo la fiel confidente de sus logros intelectuales, especulaciones teóricas y (de acuerdo a algunos) su amante. El objetivo de todo ello es ofrecer una imagen lo más fiel posible de Martha Bernays, como escudriñar la evidencia que apoya la existencia de tal liaison entre Freud y su cuñada Minna Bernays. Visibilizamos así la influencia que ambas hermanas ejercieron en el padre del psicoanálisis como hombre e investigador de la mente. El edificio psicoanalítico, pues, más que por su creador, es aquí revisitado desde la perspectiva de dos mujeres que acompañaron a Freud en su vida y en la difícil conformación y desarrollo de la matriz psicoanalítica.

There has been a vast amount of writing and reflection about Sigmund Freud and the development of psychoanalysis over time, from both within and beyond the scientific community. Freud has been regarded through different prisms – the man, the original thinker, the sage clinician – and his role in the history of psychoanalysis, and more particularly in the development of the Freudian approach, has been hotly debated. Less has been said about those who accompanied him throughout his life’s work, his wife, his children and his family members, to name but the closest, whose lives were lived in the shadow of the colossus, the genius who taught us among other things how dream analysis can unlock the secrets of the unconscious and how to account for the workings of the human psyche through his model of the mind. From among those who supported him in his daily life and formed his innermost family circle, this study centres on his wife Martha and his sister-in-law Minna. The former, whom he married in 1886, bore him six children and provided the stability for him to work free from the demands of everyday chores, while the latter became the faithful confidante of his intellectual achievements and theoretical speculations, and [according to some] his lover. The aim is to offer as accurate as possible a portrait of Martha Bernays, and to scrutinize the evidence in support of the claim that there was a liaison between Freud and his sisterin- law Minna Bernays. We can thus gain an insight into the influence of the two sisters on the father of psychoanalysis as a man and researcher into the mind. In this respect, the edifice of psychoanalysis is revisited less from the perspective of its creator than of the two women who accompanied Freud throughout his life and throughout the difficult configuration and development of the psychoanalytic framework.