In his classic book The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud wrote:
"An intimate friend and a hated enemy have always been necessary requirements of my emotional like".
Breuer had been his intimate friend in the pre-psychoanalytic phase of his career, Wilhelm Fliess would be even more during the actual birth of psychoanalysis. An Ear, Nose and Throat specialist from Berlin, Fliess is now looked on as something of a quack, a man who was convinced that the nose was a central organ of sexuality. However for Freud during the early years of psychoanalysis he was irreplaceable. Freud called him "the only Other", and conducted a voluminous and intimate correspondence over several years, in which he tried out his tentative ideas and speculations, poured out his doubts and fears, and generally sought and received emotional and intellectual support.
In his Autobiographical study Freud seems cool and calm about the events surrounding his abandonment of the Seduction Theory. His letters to Fliess reveal a different story. Read both selections (FR: pp. 111-116; pp. 17-21) and come to class prepared to discuss the following questions.
Letters to Fliess
1. What reasons does Freud give for abandoning his Seduction Theory?
Freud insists that his doubts are the result of intellectual honesty, not
weakness. Later Freudian observers have not been so sure. What do you think?
What do you think was the real error made concerning the Seduction Theory?
2. What evidence do you see of the depth of Freud's despair in his letters to his friend?
3. One of the oldest criticism of psychoanalysis is that Freud simply universalized his own psychological problems. Do you see any evidence of this tendency in his letters to Fliess? How would Freud defend himself?
Autobiographical Study (pp. 17-21)
4. Explain the theory of repression and the changes in Freud's technique and theory which prompted him to change the name of his treatment from catharsis to psycho-analysis.
5. Explain Freud's topographical approach to the mind, and why Freud sides against the "philosophers".
6. Summarize Freud's description of his Seduction "error". What "right" conclusions did he then draw? Why as this new theory so controversial?