Free The Interpretation Of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld Page A

capable of producing her
symptoms.
        'The girl is hysterical,' I said.
'She is suffering from crypto-amnesia.'
        'Crypto-amnesia?' repeated Milhau.
        'Loss of memory brought on by
repression of a traumatic episode. The term was coined by Dr Freud of Vienna.
The condition is essentially hysterical and can be found with aphonia - speech
loss - as well.'
        'By gad,' said Uncle Fish again.
'Speech loss, did you say? That's it!'
        'Dr Freud,' I went on, 'has a book on
speech dysfunction.' Freud's monograph on the aphasias was read in America long
before his psychological writings became known. 'He is probably the world's
leading authority on the subject and has specifically shown an association with
hysterical trauma - especially sexual trauma.'
        'Pity your Dr Freud is in Vienna,'
said the mayor.

 
     
        

Chapter Five
        
        I hammered on Brill's door until at
last his wife, Rose, answered. I was bursting to tell them not only that I had
arranged Freud's first American consultation but that a motorcar and driver
were waiting downstairs to take him there, sent by the mayor of New York
himself. The scene into which I intruded, however, was so full of good spirit
and conviviality that I could not immediately see my way to breaking it up.
        Brill's place was on the fifth floor
of a six-story apartment house on Central Park West. And it was tiny - just
three rooms, each smaller than my chamber at the Manhattan. But it looked out
directly on the park, and nearly every inch of it was crammed with books. A
homey smell of cooked onions hung in the air.
        Jung was there, as well as Brill,
Ferenczi, and Freud, all crowded around a small dining table in the middle of
the main room, which served as kitchen, dining area, and parlor all at once.
Brill shouted out that I must sit down and have some of Rose's brisket; wine
was poured for me before I could reply. Brill and Ferenczi were in the middle
of a story about being analyzed by Freud, with Brill acting the part of the
Master. Everyone was laughing, even Jung, whose eyes, I noticed, lingered on
Brill's wife.
        'But come, my friends,' said Freud,
'that does not answer the question: why America?'
        'The question, Younger,' Brill
clarified for my benefit, 'is this. Psychoanalysis is excommunicated everywhere
in Europe. Yet here, in puritanical America, Freud is to receive his first
honorary degree and is asked to lecture at a prestigious university. How can
that be?'
        'Jung says,' Ferenczi added, 'it is
because you Americans don't understand Freud's sexual theories. Once you do, he
says, you will drop psychoanalysis like hot apple.'
        'I don't think so,' I said. 'I think
it will spread like wildfire.'
        'Why?' asked Jung.
        'Precisely because of our
puritanism,' I answered. 'But there is something I -'
        'That is opposite,' said Ferenczi. 'A
puritan society should ban us.'
        'It will ban you,' said Jung,
laughing out loud, 'as soon as it figures out what we are saying.'
        'America puritan?' Brill put in. 'The
devil was more puritan.'
        'Quiet, all of you,' said Rose Brill,
a dark-haired woman with firm, no-nonsense eyes. 'Let Dr Younger explain what
he meant.'
        'No, wait,' said Freud. 'There is
something else Younger wants to say. What is it, my boy?'

 
        We trundled down the four flights of
stairs as quickly as we could. The more he heard of the affair, the more intrigued
Freud became, and when he learned of the mayor's personal involvement, he was
as excited as I to get downtown, notwithstanding the hour. The motorcar being a
four-seater, there was one extra place, so Freud decided Ferenczi would
accompany us. Freud had first invited Jung, who seemed strangely uninterested
and declined; he had not even come down to the street.
        Just before we drove off, Brill said,
'I don't like your leaving Jung here. Let me go get him;