ABSTRACT
Freud's profound fascination with archeology informed his vision of the split-off regions in the psyche. Ever since Studies on Hysteria, Freud compared his treatment method to the process of an archeological excavation, and his passion for archeology was reflected in the word "propylaea", a keyword of the founding dream of psychoanalysis. Under the fresh impression of the Etruscan black pottery, and after seeing Signorelli's Last Judgement, on September 9 of 1897 Freud visited the Etruscan necropolis at the foot of the rock on which the medieval city of Orvieto was constructed. The brief conversation with Minna when Freud spoke of "the eternal feminine, the immortality of our emotions", suggests that Freud viewed his own entombment as being akin to Faust's in Goethe's play on the modern hero, who, having lost confidence in the Holy Scriptures, continues to strive to achieve immortality.
