On 21 May, Lower Sixth Form Psychology students and their tutors, Dr Andrew Moore and Dr Konstantinos Foskolos, visited the Freud Museum. As the name suggests, the museum is dedicated to Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis.

In 1938, Freud escaped the Nazi annexation of Austria and came to London for a short while at 39 Elsworthy Road before moving to 20 Maresfield Gardens, where the museum is located. Freud lived there during the last year of his life. His daughter, Anna Freud, continued to live there until her death in 1982.

Students learnt facts about Freud’s life and explored his work which was based on case studies. The focus of this trip was on the psychodynamic approach which is part of the AQA exam specification. There is an impressive collection of Egyptian and Greek artefacts in his office which influenced his theories. Also on display is also the famous Freud sofa. At the end of the visit, the students gathered at the garden of the house and to revise the Approaches in Psychology in preparation for the internal exams.

Students also had the chance to see another exhibition at the Museum entitled Wunderblock which comes from Sigmund Freud’s paper A Note Upon the “Mystic Writing Pad. It is a toy used by Freud to illustrate the workings of the unconscious, where memories are stored and from where they may re-emerge. In the exhibition, Emma Smith takes this idea and uses it to imagine and uncover the complexity of the child’s mind.