Martha Bernays (/bɜːrˈneɪz/ bur-NAYZ, German: [bɛʁˈnaɪs]; 26 July 1861 – 2 November 1951) was the wife of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

[2] Isaac's son, Michael Bernays (1834–1897), Martha's uncle, converted to Christianity at an early age and was professor of German at the University of Munich.

Freud sent over 900 (lengthy) letters to his fiancée, which chart the ups and downs of a tempestuous relationship, marred by outbreaks of jealousy on his part as well as affirmations that "I love you with a kind of passionate enchantment".

The young Martha Bernays was a slim and attractive woman who was also a charmer, intelligent, well-educated and fond of reading (as she remained throughout her life).

[12] Firm but loving with her children, she spread an atmosphere of peaceful joie de vivre through the household (at least according to the French analyst René Laforgue).

Freud described her as thoroughly good, where he and Minna were more self-willed and wild;[25] and for better or worse her commitment to conventional morality, domestic duty and family values is clear.

[26] (Her husband too had shocked André Breton by his lack of any Bohemianism,[27] and considered a sexually promiscuous woman as "simply a Haderlump [a ragamuffin]".