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It is not without some hesitation that one undertakes a study of the early persona life of the founder of psychoanalysis. To a large extent this feeling is based upon Freud's own comments in The Interpretation of Dreams(4) where he stated:
The only dreams open to my choice were my own and those of my patients undergoing psycho-analytic treatment. … But if I was to report my own dreams, it inevitably followed that I should have to reveal to the public gaze more of the intimacies of my mental life than I liked, or than is normally necessary for any writer who is a man of science and not a poet. Such was the painful but unavoidable necessity; and I have submitted to it rather than totally abandon the possibility of giving the evidence for my psychological findings. Naturally, however, I have been unable to resist the temptation of taking the edge off some of my indiscretions by omissions and substitutions. But whenever this has happened, the value of my instances has been very definitely diminished. I can only express a hope that the readers of this book will put themselves in my difficult situation and treat me with indulgence, … [p. xxiii f.].
In Chapter 2 of the same work, Freud reiterates the difficulties which he had in the selection and presentation of personal material. He wrote:
There is some natural hesitation about revealing so many intimate facts about one's mental life; nor can there be any guarantee against misinterpretation by strangers. But it must