Freud exhibit opens in Washington, D.C.

Congress has opened an exhibit on Sigmund Freud that will run until Jan. 16.

"Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture," drawn largely from about 80,000 items in the library?s Freud archives, opened Oct. 15. It includes photographs, films, manuscript letters and first editions of many publications from the library?s collection, donated by the Sigmund Freud Archives. Those materials will be supplemented with items on loan from the Sigmund Freud Society in Vienna, Austria, and the Freud Museum in London. The exhibition explores the spread of Freud?s influence throughout 20th century culture, as well as the reasons his legacy is contested.

The show was originally scheduled to open in 1996, but some scholars complained that it presented a far too uncritical view of Freud and his theories. In response, the team planning the exhibit expanded the presentation to represent a wider range of viewpoints about Freud. But library officials said that funding shortfalls, not the scholarly complaints, caused the delay.

The library, in cooperation with Alfred A. Knopf, has also published a companion volume to the exhibition, which includes a wide range of views about psychoanalysis and its place in contemporary culture. Contributors include Harold Blum, Peter Kramer and Oliver Sacks.

?S. Sleek