# How much was Freud paid per "session"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-was-freud-paid-per-session/594840>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 1, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-was-freud-paid-per-session/594840 "2011-09-01T13:51:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-was-freud-paid-per-session/594840/1 "2011-09-01T13:51:36Z")

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I’m pretty sure a “session” was not the 45-minute “I’m afraid our time is up”-kind of thing. Hours long? Package deal for weeks and weeks?

If anyone could translate to 2011 dollars, with cost-of-living adjustments, that would be great.

I hereby alot a maximum of four cocaine jokes. 😉

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**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-was-freud-paid-per-session/594840/2 "2011-09-01T17:17:03Z")

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[One source says](http://www.unstrange.com/grinkerbio.html):

> [@](#):
>
> Freud charged $25 an hour, equivalent to $330 in today’s money.

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**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-was-freud-paid-per-session/594840/3 "2011-09-01T17:53:41Z")

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Different patients, different fees: As a general rule, Americans had to pay more than fellow Europeans.

From time to time, he’d take on a patient for free, too.

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**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-was-freud-paid-per-session/594840/4 "2011-09-01T18:20:31Z")

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… Well, this is irritating. I just went to look up the exact sums in Roazen’s Freud biography when I realized I just returned it to the library last week!

If I remember correctly, though, it was something like 10-15 dollars for other Europeans, but 25-30 dollars for Americans.

I’ll add that in certain cases he _gave_ money to his patients. When Bruno Goetz – later a famous poet and translator, but then just a poor, hungry, desperate student – admitted that he hadn’t had a steak in four full weeks, Freud handed him an envelope containing “200 crowns.” (No clue how much that would be in modern currency, though.)