Freud: audio recording
By Karnacology Editorial Team · · Updated Aug 8, 2026
Sigmund Freud on the BBC – 1938:
On December 7, 1938, the BBC came to Freud’s Maresfield Gardens home in London to record a short message. By this time his cancer of the jaw was inoperable and incurable, making speech difficult and extremely painful. A photograph of Freud was taken as he prepared to read the statement you are listening to now. After his long struggle with cancer grew intolerable, Freud asked his physician for a fatal injection of morphine. He died on September 23, 1939.
This is a transcript of the speech:
Where we would start: — Online therapy and through secure messaging and live video..
I started my professional activity as a neurologist trying to bring relief to my neurotic patients. Under the influence of an older friend and by my own efforts, I discovered some important new facts about the unconscious in psychic life, the role of instinctual urges, and so on.
Out of these findings grew a new science, psychoanalysis, a part of psychology, and a new method of treatment of the neuroses. I had to pay heavily for this bit of good luck. People did not believe in my facts and thought my theories unsavory. Resistance was strong and unrelenting.
In the end I succeeded in acquiring pupils and building up an International Psychoanalytic Association. But the struggle is not yet over. –Sigmund Freud.
Related: — A structured, CBT-based online for individuals and couples..
Freud’s handwritten copy, with the Maresfield Gardens letterhead
Further reading
- Sigmund Freud — Wikipedia
P.S. A few readers have asked which therapy + psychiatry we actually reach for — it's Talkspace; if you want the current details.
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