It was adapted from these doodles drawn by Freud in the early 1920s, during a meeting of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Because it represents a classical Greek motif it was considered a suitable emblem of the Museum, which contains Freud's collection of antiquities, including many Greek objects. The drawing also suggests a simplified labyrinth.
Psychoanalysis supplies the thread that leads a man out of the labyrinth.
To flee from the Nazis after the German annexation of Austria in March 1938. Cancer of the jaw, heart failure, an overdose of morphine administered by his doctor. He died in his study at 20 Maresfield Gardens, London. He is not buried because he was cremated. His ashes are interred in a Greek urn from his collection, in the Columbarium at Golders Green Crematorium, London.