Freud's Contributions on Stuttering: Their Relation to Some Current Insights

This report attempts to collate what Freud had written and spoken about the stuttering syndrome; and to review the material in the light of current insights. My aim, as regards subject matter, was not encyclopedic. Actually, the yield was quantitatively not very large, and possibly some material was overlooked. Prior to this study my recollection was that, compared to his contributions on other disorders, Freud's offerings on stuttering were quantitatively small and qualitatively not especially far-reaching. However, when the component fragments dug up were placed together and studied afresh, the material produced a quite different impression. Surprisingly, what Freud dealt with and touched on clinically and theoretically encompassed nearly all the nodal points of the syndrome, despite the fact that his clinical material was in many respects quite atypical. On different occasions he discussed aspects of the genesis and dynamics of the symptom; nosology and differential diagnosis; therapy and prognosis. Furthermore, he contributed observations on some of the special features of stuttering such as, for example, its monosymptomatic appearance, and its relation to earlier ego states. Moreover, some of his observations—to borrow a phrase of his own—struck rock bottom, even though they were often stated in terms we might now consider broad.

Freud had only one case history, as far as I know, in which stuttering played an important role.1 This is the classical case of Frau Emmy von N., one of the five which composed the Studies