III. Further Data and Memorabilia Pertaining to the Schreber Case

In this paper, which is a continuation and extension of previous studies on various aspects of Schreber's delusional system and its intricate relations to his father's life and work (Niederland, 1951), (1959a), (b), (1960), I wish to offer further material and documentary evidence pertaining to the famous case. In doing so I am aware that the method of presenting and using findings collected from outside sources, and not from the patient himself, differs from the accepted analytic method of gaining access to such data which in analysis, of course, originate from one source alone, i.e. the adult patient. In applied analysis as well as in child analysis this is different; also during psychotic episodes in the treatment of adult patients the method of gaining access to important material may legitimately change. I therefore hold that the procedure I employed in my search for source material on Schreber—the systematic collection and analytic evaluation of authentic data derived from all available sources—is both permissible and useful, not merely because it corresponds to the approach chosen by more illustrious predecessors (Freud, Jones, Greenacre, Eissler, etc.) in their respective fields of applied psycho-analytic investigation, but also because it enables us to correlate in the present case certain pathogenic events in Schreber's early life with some of his bizarre delusional formations in adulthood and thus to demonstrate what Freud (1911), (1938) has called the 'historical truth' in a number of these heretofore unintelligible phenomena.

If, for instance, the analytic study of some of the patient's more conspicuous delusions reveals such an unmistakable relation to his father's child-rearing practices as is exemplified in my findings on the otherwise incomprehensible Kopfzusammenschnürungswunder and Steisswunder (the 'head-being-tied-together-miracle' and 'coccyx miracle'), I think that we are justified