Vues nouvelles sur l'auto-analyse de Freud et la découverte de la psychanalyse (Vienne, 23 juillet 1988)

Didier Anzieu (1923-1999) was a French psychoanalyst whose diverse writings range from studies on Freud's concept of self-analysis and creative processes to a renewal of thinking about the body and the skin in psychoanalysis. “New Views on Freud's Self-Analysis and the Discovery of Psychoanalysis (Vienna, July 23, 1988)” has been translated from the original French text, which was first read at a conference in Vienna in 1988, but was only published later in Revue française de psychanalyse in 2000 to honor the recent passing of Anzieu. I hope a wider readership can enjoy the paper as it provides a clever and brilliant reading of Freud and Fleiss' epistolary exchange. Anzieu unfolds the story of Freud's creative process in relation to a close interlocutor and highlights the homoeroticism, bisexuality, and manifestations of the unconscious at stake throughout their friendship and fallout. He suggests that après coup we can see this exchange of letters as foundational for Freud's conceptualization of psychoanalysis, its structures, and its later developments. I would like to thank Christine Anzieu-Premmereur and the Revue française de psychanalyse for the permission to reprint and translate this article.