Discussion of Lawrence J. Friedman's Article, From Gradiva to the Death Instinct

I have some question of the propriety of using Freud's biographical data for psychoanalytic speculation about his motives and about the sources of his ideas. Biography warrants scholarly attention in order to study the characteristics of unusual personalities, the sources of their contributions, and just how they managed to influence the culture in which they lived. Nevertheless, it seems to me perhaps tasteless to make such an intimate study of one dead so recently. This applies especially if one uses biographical material and inferences from it, in order to evaluate the man's contribution.

I do not believe that Dr. Friedman is implying that if we can reconstruct Freud's motives for working out the theory of the death instinct, then we are justified in considering the theory discredited. Demonstrating Freud was concerned with oedipal conflicts at the time that he described the theory of the Oedipus complex, does not discredit it. Freud has tempted us, almost invited us, to subject him to psychoanalytic scrutiny, by contributing autobiographical material in his writings. Moreover his biography furnished the entire psychoanalytic profession with a well-documented, extensive case history which one can adduce to demonstrate one point or another.

Freud disguised much of his autobiographical material, and we may infer he wished to retain his privacy. It is presumptuous to imagine that we, at such a distance, and from such fragmentary material could draw inferences about Freud which he himself could not. We could certainly hesitate to discuss analytically in a public forum, material derived from

any of our patients, living or dead, even if that patient had let it be known he had been in analysis.

We know that the work people select to do and the contents of their thoughts often represent an attempt to deal with unsolved problems. Therefore it should be no surprise that a man approaching the age at which his father died, an age which brings limitations of energies and capac