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Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Richard Macer

Chris Durlacher

Behind the Scenes at the Museum: Episode 2: Freud Museum

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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Freud Museum

Episode 2

Episode 2: Freud Museum

BBC Four - Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Freud Museum

At London's Freud Museum, a new director has the mission to make Freud less elitist.

Series about museums struggling to connect with a modern audience. At London's Freud Museum, changes are under way to make Freud more appealing to ordinary people.

The Freud Museum in Hampstead, London is where the father of psychoanalysis lived his final year after escaping the Nazis in Austria. Sigmund Freud managed to smuggle out all his possessions, including the famous couch where his patients lay. This iconic piece of furniture is now a shrine to therapists and Freud fans from all over the world.

But despite its gravitas this small museum is struggling to stay relevant. In recent years Freud's thinking has fallen out of fashion and theories like Penis Envy and the Oedipus Complex have been discredited by many in the psychology world. Now the museum is appointing a new director with the mission to make Freud less elitist and more appealing to ordinary people. 

One of the first things the museum does is to hold a dating evening. A number of games are created for the night, based on Freud's obsession with human sexuality. Another activity seizes on Freud's groundbreaking theory of dream interpretation, with scholar Ivan Ward getting partygoers together to discuss their dreams with one another. 
 
But the process of making change is slow because no one can agree. Everyone has an opinion on how best to serve Freud, including the caretaker Alex who has lived at the museum since its beginning.

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Richard Macer visits three different museums struggling to connect with a modern audience

Series in which acclaimed filmmaker Richard Macer visits three different museums struggling to connect with a modern audience

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Episode 2: Freud Museum

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