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There appears to be a diversity of opinion among the discussants as to the influence exerted upon Freud by the Pythagoreans, and even as to the influence of ancient Greek thinkers upon the development of Freud's psychoanalytic formulations and upon the formation of his professional ethos. There is ample evidence that Freud later in life thought of himself as a link in the chain of humanists who were preoccupied with the study of man, man's relation with other men, and his place in the universe, this chain having its inception in classical Greek times.
Plato in his Republic IX (592) wrote: “The man of understanding will look at the city which is within him, and take heed that no disorder occur in it, such as might arise either from superfluity or from want.” With the advent of the Renaissance this study was again resumed, and the Florentine humanist Matteo Palmieri (1405-1475) stated: “… the investigation of the secrets of nature is certainly in itself a not unworthy study, but none the less one of much less service to mankind than that of moral wisdom upon which is based the well-being of the race. … We hold the investigation of the secrets of nature to be still of the minutest interest compared to the supreme task of solving the problem of how to live.”
My paper, having been condensed from a much larger study, may have given the impression that I felt that Freud's psychoanalytic formulations were greatly derived from the concepts of Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans. Actually, I intended to suggest only that this influence, obviously but one of many, has been neglected by psychoanalytic authors.