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I have had a good exchange with one of my website correspondents which I want to share with everyone.

Sometime ago my a blog site correspondent wrote and made an observation that he believed he had read that Freud had been in a train accident which caused a severe wound to his chin/jaw. He wondered if I knew the source for that piece of information. I remarked that I knew of no such “train accident” that Freud was ever involved in and directed him to the fact that Freud claimed (in Interpretation of Dreams) that he sustained a severe chin injury when he fell from a chair as an infant. I also mentioned that in my book, Passion for Murder, I express the view that actually Freud sustained his injury, which caused a terrible scar his whole life, not when he was not-yet-two but when he was 19 when he murdered John.

I also mentioned that after Freud’s return from England he wore a beard the rest of his life to cover the obvious large scar—and to hide from any questions as to how he had gotten such a wound. I also mentioned that Freud had planted his “cover-story” about how he got the wound into Interpretation of Dream some ten years after original publication of his dream book.

Readers of my book, Passion for Murder, will see that Freud was at pains to conceal and lie about the scar and I devoted attention to the detail because I am sure Freud got the wound when he murdered John—as my research establishes. I also link Freud’s other fraudulent “confession” that it was at the age of 3 when he was traveling with his mother that he was traumatized by seeing the gas street lights of the little town of Breslau which reminded him of “souls burning in Hell.” Thus, I also linked Freud’s famous “travel phobia” to Freud’s trip to England when he murdered John. And in my book I quoted from and frequently refered to Freud’s originally anonymous essay “Screen Memories” as a rich source for Freud’s cover-up confession of his murder of John—I say cover-up as Freud pretends all the traumatic events he claims to have suffered from emanated from the time when he was not-yet-two or about 3 years of age. When, in reality, Freud’s traumatic events occurred when he was 19 (Freud’s code for not-yet-two, i.e., not-yet-twenty). (That is Freud’s traumatic teenage traumas; he was probably traumatized by his “father’s” pedophile sexual assaults at a very early age).

In any case, my correspondent a couple of days ago sent me the below email, following up on the matter. 

Hi,  Do you recall I mentioned Freud's train accident? I think I read about it in The Screen Memories, which as far as i understand is autobiographical. I quote [from Freud’s “Screen Memory”]:"I remember two small incidents during the train journey; as you   will recall, these came up in the analysis of my phobia. What ought to have made the biggest impression on me was an injury to my face, which caused me to lose a lot of blood and was stitched up by the surgeon. I can still feel the scar, which testifies to the accident, but I have no recollection that would directly or indirectly point to this experience. Incidentally I was probably not yet two at the time. "  

Best regards 

Though I had analyzed the situation, and brought much evidence to my conclusions in my book regarding the matter of the wound and scar, the above quoted passage from “Screen Memory” eluded me as to its pointed significance regarding additional evidence that Freud’s wound was linked with his “travel neurosis” and the fact that, because of this, Freud found himself unable to “keep his mouth shut” about the matter.   

Of course, Freud was unable to tell the truth about the scar and had to lie, again, about the matter—contradicting his explanation (as referred to above as found in Interpretation of Dreams),i.e., that he suffered his wound falling from a table.  

Actually, I was wrong in my remarks to my correspondent that Freud originally mentioned the scar and the accident in Interpretation of Dreams. Freud, first told of the story in “Screen Memories” (1899) and did not mention it at all in the first edition of Interpretation of Dreams (1900). It wasn’t until 10 years after the first publication of the dream book that he inserted the story about falling off a chair and sustaining his injury, resulting in a deep scar—10 years after his first mention of it in “Screen Memories,”—which was written anonymously!!  

The fact that he was obviously concealing something important is mentioned by Freud’s own official biographer, Ernest Jones, who wrote, in specific reference to the matter about the scar and Freud’s attempts to conceal his mention of it in “Screen Memory”:

It is therefore plain that Freud regarded the story in the screen memory, or rather the deep personal feelings connected with it, as something especially intimate, though the grounds for this are far from evident to anyone else.  

But it is evident to us because we know why he felt the necessity of concealing the story’s full truth—again, the fact that he really sustained the wound when he murdered John. Below is Freud’s account of the same incident in Interpretation of Dreams, given 10 years after his first mention of it in “Screen Memories.”

But let us leave this: the locality, a pantry, the chest, from which he [i.e., Freud himself] wants to take something (in the dream, to put something on it), are unmistakable allusions to an accident of my own, brought upon myself when I was between two and three years of age. I climbed on a foot-stool in the pantry, in order to get something nice which was on a chest or table. The foot-stool tumbled over and its edge struck me behind the lower jaw. I might very well have knocked all my teeth out. (Interpretation of Dreams) 

It must be borne in mind that Jones knew Freud had yet another, contradictory, story for the same injury but, of course, he did not tell that to the reader. Here is Jones’ comment on the situation, from Jones’ biography of Freud about the account given in Interpretation of Dreams: 

An incident which he could not recollect was of slipping from a stool when he was two years old, and receiving a violent blow on the lower jaw from the edge of the table he was exploring for some delicacy. It was a severe cut which necessitated sewing up, and it bled profusely; he retained the scar throughout life. 

Of course, the reader will see (above) that Freud tells a completely different story, as said, about the same matter. More telling yet is the fact that Freud went to extreme lengths to cover-up the fact of his earlier confession in “Screen Memory” which, again, was published 10 years before his second version, which was then erased entirely from the Interpretation of Dreams in publications of the dream book in a 1925 issue of his works and after. Jones again rats on his Murder Master, while at the same time concealing much valuable information from the reader—namely that Freud tells contradictory stories about the scar. The following amazing information is in Jones’ Volume One of his Freud biography, pg. 67: 

The incident in question, however, is of considerable interest. It is the one Bernfeld unraveled from the anonymous description Freud published under the disguise of a supposed patient whom Bernfeld labels Mr. Y. In 1899, when it was written/nothing was known of Freud's early personal life, but he did not reprint the essay where it would naturally belong, in either the Sammlung Kleiner Schriften (Collection of Small Papers) or the Psychopathology of Everyday Life. Ten years later he inserted into the second edition of The Interpretation of Dreams, which contains so many personal allusions, a remark (concerning his facial scar). . .  When the Gesammelte Schriften (Collected Writings) were being arranged in 1925, Freud could not refuse the editors permission to include the beautiful little essay in question, "Screen Memories.” It would have been too pointed and would certainly have aroused their suspicion of a mystery. But at the same time he took care to erase from The Interpretation of Dreams, which was also being reprinted for the Collected Writings, the revealing passage even at the cost of making the context there unintelligible. [underline added] It is therefore plain that Freud regarded the story in the screen memory, or rather the deep personal feelings connected with it, as something especially intimate, though the grounds for this are far from evident to anyone else. Nor could all the precautions he took prevent its being pretty clear to several of us that the "patient" must have been himself.  

My highly educated and perceptive correspondent (working on his second doctorate, in Psychology) sent me the following email:  

Eric, 

Nice of you to write to me. Yes, when Freud says one thing he probably means something else. We can never be sure if, when and where the accident he refers to happened. A couple of suspicious points: had he had the accident before the age of two, he would have asked and been told about it. So he would not have the need to find out about the accident via self-analysis. Besides, people would have asked him about the scar all his life, thus the scar must be of a later origin. By the way, there is a number of pictures of Sigmund as a youngster and I haven't seen any scar, you could check them out, by the way, where was the scar situated, I could check it out too, the next time I look at his pictures. 

One more thing, he talks not about one, but about two accidents! So he must have been injured in more than one place. By the way, train journey in Freudian symbolic language mans a departure, thus death, which can fit neatly into your killing hypothesis. The Freudian train of death. I thought about you too, and wondered if you were making any progress. I have almost finished reading Freud-Fliess letters, and they only confirm what I thought, Freud was insane, paranoid and I believe Fliess—who claimed that Freud tried to kill him. . . .  

Best regards and Keep up the good work 

I wrote back, in reply to yet other of my correspondent’s remarks: 

That Freud’s career is littered with dead bodies is certainly correct, as you observe, and as I believe I have well documented in my book. . .  We do seem to be on the same page. I’ll end with mentioning I have sent again another attachment—in it I pulled and pasted what Jones had to say about the scar. I think you will be very interested. I quote directly from ID and Jones, etc. . .  And, in closing, since you now have the FF [Freud/Fliess]  correspondence if you check page 268 you will see that after confessing that John is at the center of Freud’s  travel phobia and determined everything that is “neurotic and intense” in all his friendships he ends with confessing that this is the real source of his “travel neurosis.” –

This nephew [John] and this young brother have determined, then, what is neurotic, but also what is intense, in all my friendships. You yourself have seen my travel anxiety at its height.”  

So, Freud’s travel neurosis really does directly relate to John! Just as I claim in Passion for Murder. Fun communicating with you.Eric 

We see, then, that Freud’s first comment about the scar directly related it to his “travel phobia.” 

 So, with that I’ll end this Blog entry—and I wish to express my thanks to my correspondent who has added to the evidence by directing me to some additional evidence, and important evidence, that I had previously neglected to add to my argument in Passion For Murder.  

By the way, such input from the readers is valuable and I hope anyone who wishes to contact me will do so, knowing that I will automatically preserve your identity—unless you specifically authorize me to use your name. Also, if you have something you’d like to be considered for posting at our website please send it on. More to come, I have much new info to share, keep checking with the website at: www.passion4murder.com 

Eric 

P.S. A capstone of evidence already posted on my website on the first page is worth adding, it is from one of Freud’s letters to Fliess: 

I know quite a number of people whom I respect highly-among them not only Meynert, but you, too whose epidermis would have been torn open by the traumatic events of my life whereas I may achieve in time quite a solid layer of scars. With you I don't have to protect myself against the suspicion of exaggeration.

We have the testimony of Dr. Ernest Jones that the wound was severe and he “retained the scar throughout life.”