What is it about?
In 1900 Freud wrote that he was 'not a thinker' but 'a conquistador'. In reality he was both, and was engaged in a lifelong struggle to bring these contradictory sides of his personality into relationship. This book conceptualizes elements of Freud's psychoanalytic journey of discovery in terms of his need to achieve integration within his psyche, and in particular to forge a more creative collaboration between 'conquistador' and 'thinker'.
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Why is it important?
The book is somewhat unusual in the Freud literature in that it is neither a theoretical exposition nor a biographical study but an attempt to link the two, and trace the origins of some of Freud's psychoanalytic discoveries in his personal emotional journey.
Perspectives
In writing this book I was interested to approach the task of trying to use the available evidence from Freud's writings and his letters to Wilhelm Fliess, in order to see what inferences I could make as to Freud's personal experience, especially during the period of his 'self-analysis', and to link these to the development of his theory.
Dr Paul William Schimmel
private practice psychoanalyst
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Sigmund Freud's Discovery of Psychoanalysis, October 2013, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4324/9781315886770.
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