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

“And here I may be allowed to break off these autobiographical notes. The public has no claim to learn any more of my personal affairs—of my struggles, my disappointments, and my successes. I have in any case been more open and frank in some of my writings … than people usually are who describe their lives for their contemporaries or for posterity. …” (Postscript to An Autobiographical Study, Freud, page 73, Vol. XX, St. Ed.)

Freud did not exaggerate. Few scientific writers have revealed as much of themselves. Certainly, no one has permitted the products of his creativity to be so closely juxtaposed to portrayals of his own unconscious mental processes and the most intimate personal details. It is easy to get glimpses of his mental life, both the superficial, manifest contents as well as the unconscious ones. It hardly requires conjecture, and certainly not the psychoanalytic methodology to know that Freud was preoccupied with death before, during, and after the time that he had his cancer (and certainly at the time that he pronounced his theory of the “Death Instinct”).

Insofar as Dr. Friedman takes internal and external events and suggests a relationship between them he is using a part of the psychoanalytic method. And insofar as he finds that

certain persons in the external world (even fictitious ones) can be the objects of identifications and projections, he is still using another part of the same method. There is a great deal more, however, to the analysis and genetic reconstruction of instinct, defense, and compromise formation. I doubt whether the use of a novel which Freud over-idealized and liked (Jensen's Gradiva) is a substitute for free association and can be treated like a dream or a symptom. Gradiva was for Freud a proof of his method and thoughts; the book recapitulates the essence of analytic theory and thought; a magnificent confirmation of his life-work. No greater narcissistic joy can be imagined! It resembles his dreams not at all while it does r