Frank Lucian Neutra

January 4, 1924 -July 5, 2006

The Neutra’s oldest son Frank Lucian Neutra was named after Frank Lloyd Wright and his father’s school friend from Vienna, architect Ernst Lucian Freud, the son of Sigmund Freud. Frank was born in Hagen Germany after a long and traumatic home delivery. As the time came for him to talk it became clear that something was wrong. Not only did he have difficulty speaking but he had obsessive behaviors, difficulty in relating socially and had emotional ups and downs. In retrospect he was on the autism spectrum, a diagnosis that did not exist at that time. On a trip back to Europe in 1930, his mother brought him to see Sigmund and Anna Freud who recommended that he stay with his family as long as possible but predicted that it would become increasingly difficult as he reached his teenage years. He was seen by many specialists over the years but in his late teens violent temper tantrums led to his being institutionalized, and then after the 1970’s he was cared for in specialized residential settings. Raymond Neutra wrote a description of Frank’s life in the Neutra family that can be read on this website.