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Most students of psychoanalysis are familiar with the case of Daniel Paul Schreber as a result of Freud's essay “Psycho-analytic Notes on an Autobiographical Case of Paranoia.” Using Schreber's Memoirs of My Nervous Illness (but without ever speaking with Schreber or any members of his family) Freud diagnoses Schreber as suffering from paranoia, evolves the connection between paranoia and repressed homosexuality, and explains the mechanism of projection. This view of Schreber remained intact until the 1970's, when a group of authors, including Niederland and Miller, reexamined the Schreber case, paying close attention to the published writings of Moritz Schreber, Daniel's father, who was a practicing orthopedist. These authors suggest that Schreber's paranoia was a result of his father's sadistic child-rearing practices. In this articulate, extensively researched, scholarly volume, Zvi Lothane challenges both the conventional psychoanalytic and traumatagenic models of the Schreber case. He suggests that Schreber's account of his “soul murder” can be best understood in the context of Schreber's relationship with his family, his psychiatrists Dr. Fleschig and Dr. Weber, and the prevailing politics of mental illness and institutionalization.
In order to support this theory the author examines in detail the life and writings of Daniel Schreber, Dr. Moritz Schreber, Dr. Fleschig, and Dr. Weber, as well as court records surrounding the question of involuntary institutionalization. He also interviewed surviving members of the Schreber family. In his synthesis of all of this information, Dr. Lothane suggests that Schreber was misdiagnosed and mistreated, first by the people who treated him at the time, and second by the contemporary psychoanalytic community. He believes that Schreber was initially depressed, not paranoid, and that the delusions that began during his second hospitalization were both a reaction to his relationship with his wife and Dr. Fleschig, and an attempt