Letter 102 to Wilhelm Fliess : 16th January 1899 : Sigmund Freud

Published in German

Briefe an Wilhelm Fliess 1887-1904 Sigmund Freud, Ungekürzte Ausgabe, Herausgegeben von Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Bearbeitung der deutschen Fassung von Michael Schröter, Transkription von Gerhard Fichtner, [Unabridged edition, edited by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, adaptation of the German version by Michael Schröter, transcription by Gerhard Fichtner,] Publisher S.Fischer, 2^nd Edition 1999.

Published in English translation:

-p340-342, Fantasy or Reality, of The complete letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904. (Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Editor and Translator), Cambridge, MA, and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985c
– p272-274 (Letter 102) in Marie Bonaparte, Anna Freud, and Ernst Kris, (Eds.), The origins of psycho-analysis: Letters to Wilhelm Fliess, drafts and notes, 1887-1902, Abridged version, Translated by Eric Mosbacher & James Strachey, London: Imago, 1954 :

Available www.LacanianWorksExchange.net /Freud (16^th January 1899)

Citation

– Draft G Melancholia : probably 7th January 1895 : Sigmund Freud. See /3 Sigmund Freud (18950107 or Index of Sigmund Freud’s texts)

German 1999, Translated by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (1985),
Already in “Further Remarks on Defensive Neuropsychoses” (1896b, p. 389), he pointed out that cases of “periodic melancholia” can be “resolved with unsuspected frequency into obsessional affects and obsessional ideas” [SE III p171-172] and can therefore be explained by the nature of the obsessional neurotic conflict. A little later, he recognized his entire attempt as a mistake (see also p189-Letter to Fliess of 16^th January 1899).

Footnote 3, James Strachey, p101-102 of ‘The Origins’ (1954)
Freud naturally soon found this attempt to derive “melancholia” from a reaction to sexual excitation insufficient. He pointed out in “Further Remarks on the Neuro-Psychoses of Defence” (1896 b) that “‘periodic melancholia in particular appears to be reducible with unexpected frequency to obsessional affects and obsessional ideas” [SE III p171-172] and hence could be explained by the nature of obsessional-neurotic conflict. A little later he recognized the whole attempt to have been mistaken. (See also Letter 102 – 16^th January 1899).