Coincidences in Analysis: Sigmund Freud and the Strange Case of Dr Forsyth and Herr von Vorsicht1

(Final version accepted 30 April 2009)

Freud's interest in thought transference opens the possibility for psychoanalytic research on the primary preverbal language and the maternal function, which the emphasis on verbal and paternal communication had hidden in the background of the setting. The author advances a new interpretation of coincidences in analysis and of the psychopathology of everyday life of the setting. Starting from a strange coincidence, new hypotheses are submitted following additional readings of the unpublished manuscript of the ‘Forsyth case’, recovered by the author, in regard to a significant moment of transformation, both in Freud and in psychoanalysis, at the end of the war. This phase corresponds first to a change of language, from German to English, as well as to the foundation of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis by Ernest Jones. In particular, the roots of the metapsychological turn of the 1920s are explored, together with the opening of private and productive thoughts in the area of ‘telepathy’ that joined Freud, Ferenczi, and Anna Freud in a true ‘dialogue of unconsciouses’. The free association between A Child Is Being Beaten, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, and the clinical experience with ‘Herr B.’ is outlined in order to understand Freud's heroic self-analysis at the time when he was treating his daughter Anna and grieving the death of his beloved Sophie.