Through Clouds of Smoke: Freud’s Final Days

The ageing Sigmund Freud reflects upon the torments of age, the lung cancer he suffers due to his cigar addiction, and the rise of Nazism.

In 1923, Sigmund Freud, 67 years old and an inveterate cigar smoker, discovers that he has mouth cancer, a truth long hidden from him by doctors. Despite his diagnosis, Freud survived 15 more years, convinced the cigars that were slowly destroying him increased his productivity and gave him control over himself.

At the same time, a different sort of cancer was consuming Europe. In 1933, Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, annexing Freud's home country of Austria five years later. His books burning upon fascist pyres and his peers concerned for his life, Freud had no choice but to leave Vienna for London, his final home.

With accuracy and sobriety, Suzanne Leclair and William Roy reveal a raw and nuanced portrait of the father of psychoanalysis in his last days. Here, the controversial figure is shown in all his contradictions and weakness, a reflection of our own fears and trials in facing age and death.