Irving Stone and 'Passions of the Mind'
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, April 30, 1971-31
Vienna to Finally Recognize Freud's Role, Novelist Says
By CHARLOTTE DUBIN
There was no ceremony when
Sigmund Freud bid a final fare-
well to his beloved Vienna more
than three decades ago. It was,
indeed, a most unceremonious
goodby—he and his family were
literally ransomed from the Nazis.
It is with some irony, then, to
learn that his old home town
has never really made amends.
They still refuse •to teach psycho-
analysis at the University of
Vienna, his alma mater. And his
residence, at No. 19 Berggasse, is
not listed in the tourist guidebook.
Thanks to Freud's biographer,
the latter situation, at least, is to
be corrected.
Irving Stone, whose art has
breathed life into innumerable his-
torical figures, was in Detroit last
weekend to • promote his latest
work—"Passions of the Mind," a
biographical novel about the
father of psychoanalysis (publish-
ed by Doubleday). Not that the
book needs much promoting: as of
Sunday, it is at the top of the
New York Times' book list.
Three years ago, when Stone
and his wife Jean were in the
midst of research for the book,
President Johnson invited them
to a White House gathering for
the Austrian chancellor. The
latter stepped out of the recep-
tion line to inform Stone that his
government wished to purchase
No. 19 Berggasse "and make it
into a Freud house—to rebuild
and refurnish just as Freud
knew it."
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Stone said the Austrians have
kept their promise. They have
acquired three of the four floors
of the building, and by 1974 hope
to own it completely, devoting the
entire structure to Freud memo-
rabilia. "And his name will be in
the guidebook," Stone added.
The recognition of his country-
men always eluded Freud, but
Stone doesn't believe it was total-
ly. of an anti-Semitic foundation.
"Vienna has never acknowledged
its native son (Freud was born
in Moravia, but spent most of his
life in Vienna) partly out of resist-
ance to new ideas. They used the
factor that Freud was a Jew
against him — 'This is a Jewish
science,' they said—but this wasn't
all. They refused to recognize the
sexual factor that he raised in his
theories."
Yet, in rare tribute to Stone,
the Viennese have issued their
first review of "Passions of the
Mind"—"They say that finally the
Germans can understand Freud."
Besides the German transla-
tion, "Passions" has been pub-
lished in England and is sched-
uled soon for Japan, France,
Denmark, Netherlands and Italy.
Stone still has a long way to go
before reaching his all-time
record: "Lust for Life," the
story of Vincent Van Gogh, has
been published in 50 languages
and dialects, as well as made
into a movie, since it came out
37 years ago.
Not all of the reviews have
been favorable. Stone makes no
secret of a 25-year-old feud with
Time magazine, which he says,
persists in the myth that Freud
had an illicit relationship with his
sister-in-law, Tante Minna. Time
is "violently against Freud," but
Stone is violently against Time.
One day, he has said publicly and
repeated now, "Time magazine.
will be nothing but stench in the
nostrils of history."
Stone said he expects no com-
ment from Freud's daughter Anna,
the scientist's devoted disciple,
who lives in England. The two
began communicating 20 years
ago, when the writer sought the
release of Freud's letters. "She
asked me to wait till she was
dead before writing the book."
However, when the great majority
of Freud's letters to and from his
friends and followers became avail-
able over the years, the way was
open for Stone to proceed.
Actually, as Stone tells it, writ-
ing a biographical novel about
Freud was a dream that began
50 years ago, when he was a fresh-
man at the University of Califor-
nia at Berkeley. Despite the inter-
ruption—during which Stone found
time to teach political science and
economics, work on a PhD at
Berkeley, write a detective story
a day for a penny a word, get
married and make a fortune as a
novelist and biographer — Stone
never forgot Freud.
At the end of five years of re-
search, in which the Stones to-
tally immersed themselves in the
life of Vienna and Zurich in the
1880s and '90s, the writer had
come to know his hero intimately.
With his wife's help as editor,
which he freely acknowledges,
Stone interviewed surviving rela-
tives and friends, read copious
letters and books those written by
Freud and about him, and re-
searched the total environment in
which Freud lived and worked.
By the time Stone was ready
to write, "I had emptied myself
out and filled myself with Sig-
mund Freud. I have to know
the man so well that I am the
man. When I act for Freud, I
have to be true to him."
As a result, Stone is able to
expound Freud's views as though
they were his own. For example,
what would Freud have to say
about the contemporary "moral
revolution"?
"He would be gratified by the
fact we've thrown off the chains
and are able to talk about sex.
But he wouldn't approve of the
excesses. Actually, Freud was a
puritan himself."
How inimitably graceful children
are in general—before they learn
to dance.—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Dr. Daniel Elazar Next Speaker
for UHS Midrasha Lecture Series
Near Post Office
13720 W. 9 Mile
Dr. Daniel Elazar, a graduate of Mandell Berman.
At one time head = librarian of
the United Hebrew Schools, will
return to the UHS as lecturer for
the Midrasha Institute series 8:15
p.m. Thursday in the LaMed Audi-
torium of the UHS.
For the Bargman Memorial
Series, focusing on "The American
Community," Dr. Elazar, profes-
sor of political science at Temple
University, will discuss "Institu-
tions of American Jewry." He
also heads the Center for the Study
of Federalism at Temple.
Chairman of the session will be
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DANIEL ELAZAR
the UHS library, Dr. Elazar at-
tended the Midrasha for three
years and the Chicago College of
Jewish Studies for four.
He holds a PhD degree in politi-
cal science from the University of
Chicago, has served on the faculty
of the University of Illinois and
as visiting professor at the Uni-
versity of Minnesota and the He-
brew University.
A former Guggenheim Fellow,
Dr. Elazar also was a Fuibright
Senior Lecturer. He has pub-
lished several books on Amer-
ican government and contributed
many articles on Jewish subjects
to scholarly journals.
He is a member of the board of
trustees and executive committee
of the Federation of Jewish Agen-
cies; the Council of Jewish Fed-
erations and Welfare Funds Task
Force on Jewish Identity; and the
American Jewish Committee Task
Force on American Jewish Life.
Iry Rosen
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