Freud's “I” and “You”: Secret Sharers in the Introductory Lectures

Of all Freud's writings the Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis has enjoyed the widest popularity. It is a masterpiece of exposition, ranking with the Socratic dialogues in its lucidity and sparkling prose. The most striking literary quality of the book is the intimacy he establishes with his audience. “Readers of the present volume will discover,” James Strachey notes in the Editor's Introduction to the Standard Edition of the work, “how constantly Freud retains this contact—how regularly he puts objections into his audience's mouth and how frequently there are imaginary arguments between him and his followers” (1916-1917, p. 6). The technique proved so successful that Freud continued it in the New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, which he never intended to deliver to a live audience. “These new lectures, unlike the former ones, have never been delivered …. If, therefore, I once more take my place in the lecture room during the remarks that follow, it is only by an artifice of the imagination; it may help me not to forget to bear the reader in mind as I enter more deeply into my subject” (1933, p. 5). He also exploited this artifice of the imagination in The Question of Lay Analysis and The Future of an Illusion, observing in the latter: “An enquiry which proceeds like a monologue, without interruption, is not altogether free from danger. One is too easily tempted into pushing aside thoughts which threaten to break into it, and in exchange one is left with a feeling of uncertainty which in the end one tries to keep down by over-decisiveness. I shall therefore