This is the letter Sigmund Freud sent with the first two parts of the Project.
See The Project (Entwurf) for a Scientific Psychology : 23rd & 25th September & 5th October 1895 : Sigmund Freud at this site /3 Sigmund Freud (28950923 or Index of Sigmund Freud’s texts)
Publication
The letter’s text is published below and at www.LacanianWorksExchange.net /Freud (October 1895)
Original German : Freud, Sigmund. (1950c [1895]). Entwurf einer Psychologie. In Marie Bonaparte, Anna Freud, and Ernst Kris, (Eds.), (1950a). Aus den anfangen der psychoanalyse. briefe an Wilhelm Fliess, abhandlungen und notizen aus de jahren 1887-1902. London: Imago; GW, Nachtragsband, 387-477;
Corrected transcription in J. M. Masson and Michael Schröter, (Eds.), Briefe an Wilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1986
In English translation:
Marie Bonaparte, Anna Freud, and Ernst Kris, (Eds.), The origins of psycho-analysis: Letters to Wilhelm Fliess, drafts and notes, 1887-1902, (James Strachey, Trans.), London: Imago, 1954: p347-445
The complete letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904. (Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Ed. and Trans.). Cambridge, MA, and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. (1985c)
Quote from Editorial Note : 1950 : probably Ernst Kris
‘The following manuscript dates from the Autumn of 1895.The first and second parts (p.355ff., p.405ff) were begun by Freud in the train after a meeting with Fliess. (Letter of September 23, 1895; part of the manuscript [up to the end of section 2 of Part I] is written in pencil.) They were finished on September 25 (see the date at the beginning of Part II). The third part (p. 417 ff.) was begun on October 5, 1895 (see the date at the beginning of the manuscript). All three parts were despatched to Fliess on October 8.’
P350 of Marie Bonaparte, Anna Freud, and Ernst Kris, (Eds.), The origins of psycho-analysis: Letters to Wilhelm Fliess, drafts and notes, 1887-1902, (James Strachey, Trans.), London: Imago, 1954: p347-445
The full Editor’s Note is to be found at The Project for a Scientific Psychology : 23rd & 25th September & 5th October 1895 : Sigmund Freud on this site /3 Sigmund Freud (18950923 or Index of Sigmund Freud’s texts) or this site /5 Authors A-Z (Kris) .
Quote from Sigmund Freud’s Letter of 8th October 1895
Freud sent Fliess two notebooks, holding back a third dealing with repression. [Letter 29, 1954, p125 Strachey translation or 1985] : I am enclosing all sorts of things for you to-day, including … and two notebooks of mine. … Now for my two notebooks, I wrote them in one breath since my return, and they contain little that will be new to you. I have a third notebook, dealing with the psychopathology of repression, which I am not ready to send you yet, because it only takes the subject to a certain point. [Footnote 1, 1954, p126: This notebook has not survived.] From that point I had to start from scratch again, and I have been alternately proud and happy and abashed and miserable, until now, after an excess of mental torment, I just apathetically tell myself that it does not hang together yet and perhaps never will. What does not hang together yet is not the mechanism – I could be patient about that – but the explanation of repression, clinical knowledge of which has incidentally made great strides. [p140 of Masson’s translation]
Quote from Ernst Kris’s Introduction to the Letters
P26 of Introduction to ‘The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess 1887-1904’ : 1950 : Ernst Kris at this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Kris or Index of Other Authors’ texts)
He first thought of writing a “psychology for neurologists”, but obviously kept altering and modifying his first drafts. one draft dating from the autumn of 1895 has come down to us. The greater part of it was written in a few days immediately after a meeting with Fliess, and the rest in the weeks that followed. No sooner had it been sent off to Fliess than a stream of explanations and corrections went off in its wake. The ideas it contained were kept alive in the correspondence for months, and then gave way to new ideas, and above all to new insights.
….
P27 of Kris : However, the examples with which Freud illustrates these problems in the “Project” come partially from a field the importance of which his clinical work had still only imperfectly revealed to him. They are taken from earliest childhood. One of the most important deals with the relation between the suckling and the breast. [References to this relation below]. This wealth of ideas, which extends from the physiology of the brain to metapsychology in the later meaning of the term, necessarily makes the “Project” difficult to follow, even for the reader who approaches it with some preparation. Also it contains a number of obvious inconsistencies which Freud himself points out in subsequent letters. We can only partially guess Fliess’s reactions to the “Project” from Freud’s letters. They appear to have been a mixture of reserve and admiration.
Freud’s object in sending it to Fliess, for whom it was written, was to obtain from him detailed suggestions for improving the parts dealing with the physiology of the brain.
Further references to the relation between suckling and the breast.
The Primal Cavity – a contribution to the genesis of perception and its role for psychoanalytic theory : 1955 : René Spitz. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Spitz or Index of Authors’ texts)
Seminar IV : 21st November 1956 : p4 of EC translation group’s translation : ‘This object corresponds to a certain advanced stage in the development of instincts; it is the refound object of first weaning, precisely the object which formed the first point of attachment for the infant’s first satisfactions – it is an object to refind.’ See Seminar IV The Relation from Object (La relation d’objet) & Freudian Structures (1956-1957) : from 21st November 1956 : Jacques Lacan at this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19561121)
Seminar VII 3rd February 1960 See Seminar VII The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1959-1960) : from 18th November 1959 : Jacques Lacan at this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19591118 or Index of Jacques Lacan’s texts)
Discussion during Seminar VII (p133) : 3rd February 1960 : Jacques Lacan, with Victor Nikolaevitch Smirnoff (Smirnov), Xavier Audouard, Jean Laplanche, & Unknown : See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Smirnoff, Audouard or Laplanche)
Notes from Seminar VII 3rd February 1960 (p133) – Interventions by Xavier Audouard & Jean Laplanche on René Spitz & the function of ‘rooting’: 28th September 2013 (Reading Group) : Julia Evans. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Evans)
Notes from Seminar VII 3rd February 1960 – Victor Smirnov’s comments on René Spitz’s ‘Yes & No’ (p132-133) : 7th September 2013 (Reading Group) : Julia Evans. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Evans)
Letter of 8th October 1895
From P140-141 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)
Vienna, October 8, 1895
Dearest Wilhelm,
By this time news from you had become a necessity for me because I had already drawn the conclusion, in which I am rarely wrong, that your silence meant headaches. I began to feel more comfortable again when-after a long time-I once more held a piece of your scientific material in my hands. So far I have merely glanced at it and fear that respect for so much honest and subtle material will put my theoretical fantasies to shame.
I am putting together all sorts of things for you today-several debts, which remind me that I also owe you thanks, your case history of labor pains, and two notebooks of mine. Your notes reinforced my first impression that it would be desirable to make them into a full-fledged pamphlet on “The Nose and Female Sexuality.” Naturally, I was disappointed that the concluding remarks with their surprisingly simple explanations were missing.
Now, the two notebooks. I scribbled them full at one stretch since my return, and they will bring little that is new to you. I am retaining a third notebook that deals with the psychopathology of repression, because it pursues its topic only to a certain point. From there on I had to work once again with new drafts and in the process became alternately proud and overjoyed and ashamed and miserable-until now, after an excess of mental torment, I apathetically tell myself: it does not yet, perhaps never will, hang together. What does not yet hang together is not the mechanism – I can be patient about that – but the elucidation of repression, the clinical knowledge of which has in other respects greatly progressed.
Just think: among other things I am on the scent of the following strict precondition for hysteria, namely, that a primary sexual experience (before puberty), accompanied by revulsion and fright, must have taken place; for obsessional neurosis, that it must have happened, accompanied by pleasure.
But I am not succeeding with the mechanical elucidation; rather, I am inclined to listen to the quiet voice which tells me that my explanations are not adequate.
My yearning for you and your company this time came somewhat later, but was very great. I am alone with a head in which so much is germinating and, for the time being, thrashing around. I am experiencing the most interesting things which I cannot talk about and which for lack of leisure I cannot commit to paper. (I am enclosing a fragment for you.) I do not want to read anything, because it plunges me into too many thoughts and stunts my gratification in discovery. In short, I am a wretched hermit. Now, moreover, I am so exhausted that I shall just throw the rubbish aside for a while. Instead, I shall study your “migraine.” Furthermore, I am involved in a controversy by mail with Löwenfeld.[1] After I have replied to the letter, you shall get it.
How have I been doing heartwise?[2] Not especially well, but not so badly as during the first fourteen days. This time my attention has not been with it at all. Alexander is a miserable rascal and will write to you. He is doing excellently as far as his head is concerned; he is a different man. He is still complaining, as far as antipopodisch[3] is concerned.
My most cordial greetings to Frau Ida and little Paul (inchen).[4] All here are well. Martha has again made herself comfortable in Vienna.
Your
Sigm.
Footnotes
- The correspondence has not survived. For Freud’s relation to Löwenfeld see Masson (1984). [OR Introduction to ‘The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess 1887-1904’ : 1950 : Ernst Kris]
- Herzwaits; literally, in the direction of the heart.
- Meaning unclear. Possibly a joke based on the child’s word papa (bottom).
- Freud means that the baby about to come could be a boy (Paul) or a girl (Paulinchen, little Paula).
Related texts
The Project (Entwurf) for a Scientific Psychology : 23rd & 25th September & 5th October 1895 : Sigmund Freud at this site /3 Sigmund Freud (28950923 or Index of Sigmund Freud’s texts)
Introduction to ‘The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess 1887-1904’ : 1950 : Ernst Kris at this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Kris or Index of Other Authors’ texts)
Editor’s Introduction to Sigmund Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams : 1953 : James Strachey. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Strachey or Index of Authors’ texts)