Comments on Freud and Kronos

In a recent article in The American Journal of Psychiatry, J. M. Schneck wrote that Freud's reference to the castration of Kronos by his son Zeus in Splitting of the Ego in the Process of Defence does not correspond to the usual version of the myth. For instance, according to Grant (1964) and Graves (1955), Uranus was castrated by his son Kronos; Kronos did not suffer the same fate from his son Zeus. Schneck suggests two possible reasons for Freud's 'error': that he had access only to a version of the myth different from the major accounts relied on today and in past centuries, or that in this unfinished, posthumously published paper, Freud relied on his memory, which deceived him. 'A special desire and effort to reinforce his [theoretical] views [on the role of castration fear] could have led to his false recollection of mythology' (Schneck, 1968, p. 693). Some light may be shed on the problem and on Schneck's suggested explanations when one considers Freud's entire work.

It is clear that Freud's 'false recollection' cannot be attributed to the unfinished state of the posthumous article or to Freud's failing memory at the age of eighty-two. For as far back as 1900 we find Freud (1900-1901) asserting twice in The Interpretation of Dreams that Zeus castrated his father, Kronos.

… mythology and legend from the primaeval ages of human society gives an unpleasing picture of the father's despotic power and of the ruthlessness with which he made use of it. Kronos devoured his children, just as the wild boar devours the sow's litter; while Zeus emasculated his father and made himself ruler in his place (p. 256).

… The material for them was provided by a recollection from mythology. The sickle was the one with which Zeus castrated his father; the scythe and the picture of the old peasant represented Kronos, the violent old man who devoured his children and on whom Zeus took such unfilial vengeance (p. 619).