Peter Singer knew only one of his mother’s parents. When his grandmother, Amalie, finally arrived in Australia in August 1946, he was six weeks old. The world in which she had been nurtured, educated and loved lay in ruins behind her. ‘For the nine years that she was still to live, she gave us all the pent-up love that had been frustrated during so many years of sadness.’ Amalie is one of millions who arrived in this country, and continue to arrive, with little in the way of material possessions but a wealth of experience, much of it painful. Her story resonates with many others; it is still unique.
Pushing time away is presented as principally the story of Amalie’s husband, David Oppenheim. He was born in Vienna in 1881; Amalie was three years older than he. Oppenheim was richly cultured. In the years before World War I, Sigmund Freud was attracted to his grasp of myth, folklore, scripture and literature and welcomed him to collaborate on some of his work. Oppenheim became part of Freud’s intimate group, which also included Alfred Adler.
Freud believed that the wellspring of human behaviour was to be found in unresolved issues of sexuality, especially those which seem to transgress social norms and kinship taboos. Adler proposed that a sense of inferiority is more formative of the human psyche. Depending on your point of view, he either invented or discovered what is commonly known as ‘the inferiority complex’. I have only ever heard this term used in a superior tone of voice, which has always suggested to me that there was some substance in what Adler had to say. Freud was livid that somebody dared to develop alternatives to his theories and had a nasty falling out with Adler. Ironically, Freud’s behaviour towards his former associate, and subsequent rival, also indicates that Adler’s insight had some foundation. Freud had a lot to say about love. He was a pretty good hater.
David Oppenheim decided to side with Adler. Among his reasons was the fact that ‘I admired Freud but I loved Adler.’ Perhaps the erotic subtext to this statement suggests that Freud was not entirely wrong either. Oppenheim’s sexuality was a subtle affair. Both his sexual attractions and his candour about them would be more familiar at the turn of the 21st century than the 20th. When he and Amalie began writing to each other, they were