Freud’s “Project” – A purloined letter

by | Vol 22 (3/4) 2004

The present article, based on more detailed work by the author (Wegener, 2004) deals with Freud’s Project of a Scientific Psychology. Taking into account the con¬text in which the manuscript was written in 1895, namely, Freud’s correspondence with Wilhelm Fließ, the Project is seen as a letter in the proper sense of the word and, there¬fore, is distinguished from writing intended for publication. Published posthumously and surreptitiously in 1950, it is read as a purloined letter. Lacan’s revisiting of the Project and his interpretation of it as a Schreibspiel, as well as the genesis of Freud’s letter, are stud¬ied. Here, the author focuses more specifically on the precarious position of the neurons in the Project and finally on the function of Fließ as addressee of the Project and as Freud’s Other.

Related articles

  • Freud en de archeologie

    Download full Text

  • Freud and the Haizmann Affair

    In 1923 Freud published an essay on the application of psychoanalysis to a case of demonic possession and liberation through exorcism in baroque Austria. For the psychoanalyst working with archival material, it is a matter of rediscovering neurotic ailments under a different rubric. According to Freud, the story of Christoph Haizmann clearly contains a truth which is dear to him, namely, the father conceived as devil. In this polemical text, aimed at Charcot's heirs, exorcists from the 17th century emerge…

  • Collecting – An Addiction

    Not without irony, the author relates the story of the origin and development of what, in the course of about 45 years of collecting, would become probably the world's largest collection of Art Brut, Naive and Outsider Art. Charlotte Zander started collecting as a young adult when for the first time she began to earn some money. The objects of her collecting passion were so-called votive pictures and gifts. After her marriage her interest shifted to avant-garde art and still…