Meeting of the Psychoanalytic Association of New York

May 16, 1966. SOME ADDITIONAL 'DAY RESIDUES' OF 'THE SPECIMEN DREAM OF PSYCHOANALYSIS'. Freud Anniversary Lecture. Max Schur, M.D.1

According to Kris's Introduction to The Origin of Psychoanalysis, Freud's systematic self-analysis began in 1897. Dr. Schur believes that the self-analysis was preceded by a prolonged introductory phase, the most important ingredients of which we would now recognize as full-fledged transference phenomena manifesting themselves in Freud's relationship to Fliess, and that the manner in which these transference phenomena appeared in an episode preceding the 'Irma' dream influenced its content and Freud's associations to it.

From unpublished letters of Freud to Fliess, made available to Dr. Schur by Miss Anna Freud and Mr. Ernst Freud, the following facts emerged: Concurrently with the 'Irma' dream, Freud had treated for hysteria a patient, Emma. Emma had been examined by Fliess at Freud's request to determine if there was a partly 'nasal origin' of her somatic symptoms. Fliess had come to Vienna, recommended surgery, and had operated on her there, returning to Berlin a few days later. Emma underwent a stormy postoperative period; the wound was infected, bleeding, and fetid; she was in constant pain and required morphine. Fourteen days later one of several specialists who had been called in for consultation discovered that Fliess had accidentally left half a meter of iodoform gauze in the wound. Several weeks later severe bleeding began again and in the course of removing the packing in order to re-examine the cavity, there was a new hemorrhage which almost resulted in the patient bleeding to death. For some weeks Emma's condition remained critical. Excerpts from a number of letters Freud wrote to Fliess during this period reveal the deep conflict between his recognition that Fliess was basically responsible for the complications in this case and his desperate need to keep up the image of Fliess as an exalted figure—an image neces