Lettere A Wilhelm Fliess 1887 1904

Includes 133 documents never before made public and 138 previously published only in part, this volume collects the complete correspondence of Freud to his closest friend during the period that saw the birth of psychoanalysis.

Taking his title from a saying of the French philosopher Bernard de Chartres that "even dwarfs on the shoulders of giants can see farther than them," the author offers a brilliant new reading of the history of psychoanalysis. Roberto Speziale-Bagliacca exploits Sigmund Freud's fundamental stature, but rejects the common belief that "orthodox" psychoanalysis begins and ends with its founder. The author attempts to "see farther" than those who deny the advances and radical epistemological ruptures that have enriched and modified psychoanalysis after Freud. He also rejects the presumptions of those who condemn Freud for having "missed" much that only today is held to be true in psychoanalytic theory. In the author's view the relatively slow development of new ideas in psychoanalysis is traceable to what he terms "closure"-the narrow authoritarianism with which Freud's and his first followers protected the validity and basic outline of his method. Aware that a new approach to the understanding of the Freudian revolution means challenging this authoritarianism, Speziale-Bagliacca analyzes three chapters of the history of psychoanalysis to test its resilience: the Eissler-Roazen controversy over the suicide of Freud's pupil Victor Tausk, the case of the Wolf-Man analyzed by Freud, and the personality of Jacques Lacan and its influence on his writing and teaching method. In each instance, the author demonstrates how psychoanalytic knowledge runs the risk of becoming a closed system, a sort of secret society. To Speziale-Bagliacca, Freud is not infallible, but his "dethroning" must be conducted with courage, honesty, and an awareness of the inevitable anxiety that such an operation imposes. "On Freud's Shoulders "is an authoritative work on the complex ways in which psychoanalysis can look at its history and improve its therapeutic approach.

Occultism and the Origins of Psychoanalysis traces the origins of key psychoanalytic ideas back to their roots in hypnosis and the occult. Maria Pierri follows Freud’s early interest in "thought-transmission," now known as telepathy. Freud’s private investigations led to discussions with other leading figures like Carl Jung and Sándor Ferenczi, with whom he held a "dialogue of the unconsciouses." Freud’s and Ferenczi’s work assessed how fortune tellers could read the past from a client, inspiring their investigations into countertransference, the analytic relationship, unconscious communication, and mother-infant relationality. Both Freud and Ferenczi tried in different ways to come close to understanding the infant’s occult link with the mother and their secret primal language: their research on thought transference may be identified as a matrix of the developments of current psychoanalysis. Pierri clearly links modern psychoanalytic practice with Freud’s interests in the occult using primary sources, some of which have never previously been published in English. Occultism and the Origins of Psychoanalysis will be of great interest to psychoanalysts in practice and in training, as well as academics and scholars of Freudian ideas, psychoanalytic theory, the history of psychology, and the occult. It is complemented by Sigmund Freud and The Forsyth Case: Coincidences and Thought-Transmission in Psychoanalysis.

Dante's conception of language is encompassed in all his works and can be understood in terms of a strenuous defence of the volgare in tension with the prestige of Latin. By bringing together different approaches, from literary studies to philosophy and history, from aesthetics to queer studies, from psychoanalysis to linguistics, this volume offers new critical insights on the question of Dantes language, engaging with both the philosophical works characterized by an original project of vulgarization, and the poetic works, which perform a new language in an innovative and self-reflexive way. In particular, Dantes Plurilingualism explores the rich and complex way in which Dantes linguistic theory and praxis both informs and reflects an original configuration of the relationship between authority, knowledge and identity that continues to be fascinated by an ideal of unity but is also imbued with a strong element of subjectivity and opens up towards multiplicity and modernity.

"Winnicott" and "sex" are two subjects that are rarely associated with one another. Sexuality is not a prominent theme within the work of Winnicott, who preferred to concentrate on the development of the self from infancy. However, his writings contain unexplored insights into sexuality and it is these hidden insights that prompted the author to invite papers from leading analysts to expand upon them. This collection provides a fresh and innovative look at the work of Winnicott and into sexuality, in particular infantile sexuality. The unusual link of Winnicott to Freud and to a psychoanalysis located in the drives encourages a different perspective into British psychoanalysis. Other diverse themes include a historical examination of Winnicott through the British Society; an exploration of the similarities between Laplanche and Winnicott; the use of Winnicott's work in the treatment of sexual dysfunction; and the interrelation between sexuality and play. This is the sixth volume in the Winnicott Studies Monograph Series.

Defining the proper female body, seeking elective surgery for beauty, enjoying lavish spa treatments, and combating impotence might seem like today’s celebrity infatuations. However, these preoccupations were very much alive in the early modern period. Valeria Finucci recounts the story of a well-known patron of arts and music in Renaissance Italy, Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua (1562–1612), to examine the culture, fears, and captivations of his times. Using four notorious moments in Vincenzo’s life, Finucci explores changing concepts of sexuality, reproduction, beauty, and aging. The first was Vincenzo’s inability to consummate his earliest marriage and subsequent medical inquiry, which elucidates new concepts of female anatomy. Second, Vincenzo’s interactions with Bolognese doctor Gaspare Tagliacozzi, the “father of plastic surgery,” illuminate contemporary fascinations with elective procedures. Vincenzo’s use of thermal spas explores the proliferation of holistic, noninvasive therapies to manage pain, detoxify, and rehabilitate what the medicine of the time could not address. And finally, Vincenzo’s search for a cure for impotence later in life analyzes masculinity and aging. By examining letters, doctors’ advice, reports, receipts, and travelogues, together with (and against) medical, herbal, theological, even legal publications of the period, Finucci describes an early modern cultural history of the pathology of human reproduction, the physiology of aging, and the science of rejuvenation as they affected a prince with a large ego and an even larger purse. In doing so, she deftly marries salacious tales with historical analysis to tell a broader story of Italian Renaissance cultural adjustments and obsessions.