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Freud's account of Schreber's Memoirs of My Nervous Illness focuses on the boy's repressed, passive, homosexual longings for his father. This article presents an account based on the child's intense possessiveness toward his parent, a theme uncovered by White. While Freud's account leads him to emphasize Schreber's fear of castration, this interpretation reveals the unity of Schreber's many fears during the height of his illness: all are manifestations of his much greater fear of losing his psychic integrity, of “soul murder,” and are intimately related to his intense possessiveness. Freud sees Schreber's “solution” in the final phase of his illness as the fulfillment of his homosexual wish-fantasy; the possessiveness
Acknowledgment. The author wishes to thank Professor George Mahl for his valuable suggestions, generous support, and superb teaching. The author also wishes to thank Stephen Behnke for his helpful editorial assistance.
Ms. Saks is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Southern California Law Center, Los Angeles.
account, on the other hand, places a greater emphasis on the reparative quality of Schreber's “solution”: his effort to recreate the objects he has destroyed and to replenish and satisfy his God. After comparing Freud's account with an account based on possessiveness, the article concludes that a proper interpretation of the Memoirs would integrate both the sexual and the possessiveness themes.