At the request of the physician Jean Charcot, the young man was examined by the famous Sigmund Freud, as evidenced by Augusto Leopoldo in a letter to the Baron de Santa Vitória:  Although his health showed signs of recovery, monarchists ended up investing their hopes and support in his brother as pretender to the throne. With the death of Dom Pedro II, on December 5, 1891, melancholy and mania returned. Pedro Augusto accused his aunt and uncle, Princess Isabel and the Count d'Eu, of spreading rumours about his sanity; and he accused journalists of casting doubts on his masculinity. In October 1893, articles published in French and Argentine newspapers recognized the status of his cousin Dom Pedro de Alcântara as the rightful claimant to the imperial throne. This led Pedro Augusto to the brink of collapse, and his old delusions returned. After being restrained and sent to the Coburg Palace again, he attempted suicide by throwing himself through one of the windows of his room. Admitted by his father to a sanatorium in Tulln an der Donau, "The Preferred" spent the rest of his life believing that he would one day become Emperor of Brazil. On April 25, 1900, all of his personal belongings were auctioned off in Vienna. The prince died on July 7, 1934, at the age of 68 and after over four decades of hospitalization. His body was buried in the crypt of the Sankt-Augustin-Kirche in Coburg. Prince Pedro Augusto was a recipient of the following orders:   Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross   Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order, "1884"