David Fishback's Blog: Freud on Netflix

Monday, April 20, 2020

Freud on Netflix

This past weekend, I finished watching the series Freud on Netflix, which is a piece of historical fiction taking place in 1886 Austria.

At the beginning it was very interesting, then took turns that I thought were strange and even foolish. But the performances (and the desire to seeing how the writers were going to wrap up the story) took me to the end. I am glad I toughed it out. The Forward provided an interesting review.
https://forward.com/culture/443072/freud-netflix-review-psychoanalysis-magic/ But the review (which is more perceptive than the others I read) is inadequate to the task.

Everything I have read on the internet about Freud so far is, in my view, an underestimation of the series. At the end (which only makes real sense if you have watched the episodes leading up to it), it is a harrowing meditation on mob psyches, with an unnerving foreshadowing of the insanity that the Germanic world fell into much later in Freud's life.

Whether it is also is a foreshadowing of current American politics is something I have not yet worked out.

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David S. Fishback, a retired attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, is Advocacy Chair for the Metro DC Chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). His involvement in social justice efforts began as a college student in the 1960s, when he ran a tutoring program in Washington, DC. Following a year as a VISTA volunteer at a prison in Memphis, TN, he went to Harvard Law School and worked on Democratic Party reform issues.

After graduation, he joined the Office of General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. In 1983, David went to the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, where he litigated environmental tort matters, most notably the government's successful defense against lawsuits brought by asbestos product and Agent Orange manufacturers, who were seeking to shift their tort liability to the federal taxpayers.

In 1984, David became co-president of the PTA at a magnet integration primary school in Silver Spring, MD, beginning his efforts as an education activist in Montgomery County. He began advocating for LGBTQ youth in 2002 when he was appointed to the County Board of Education's Citizens Advisory Committee on sexuality education issues. During his time as chair of that committee and later through PFLAG, he was integrally involved in the ultimately successful effort to bring intelligent discussion of LGBTQ topics into the secondary school health curriculum and guidance offices.

A past member of the Temple Emanuel of Kensington MD Board of Trustees, David and his wife Bobbi co-founded and co-chaired (from 2002 to 2019) the Temple's Kulanu Committee for LGBTQ outreach. He is also a long-time member of the Temple's Social Action Council. In 2020, David was appointed to the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism.