Bibliography of Freud's Pre-Analytic Period

Freud's life needs to be considered in three phases: as a boy, as a neurologist, and as a psychiatrist. The problems of his boyhood have been sketched in his Interpretation of Dreams, in his Autobiography and in his History of the Psychoanalytic Movement; and more recently and increasingly by several biographers. What he wished to be private has become, as is the fate of public personages, of deep concern to all who feel his influence and wish to evaluate him correctly. But neither that phase nor the analytic period is the purpose of this paper.

The first twenty years of his productivity are quite unknown to most people, though a period of the purest orthodoxy. That is amazing.

Three valuable expositions exist: His own list with summaries of the “Contents of the scientific works up to the beginnings of psychoanalysis”, which was published in 1897 and contained 45 items. Then Brun's “Freud's achievements in the field of organic neurology”, in 1936 with 30 items. Thirdly, Jelliffe's “Freud as neurologist”, in 1937, showing 26 items.

The present collection of 65 separate publications is then a fourth attempt at a definitive bibliography of his pre-analytic period. Its justification lies in the utility for reference of a chronological list including more titles, with more correct and more complete spellings, volume numbers, paging, and dates. After each reference there are noted in parentheses the three previous bibliographers, the number of the item in the sequence presented by each, and the respective citations deviating from the original publication. No attempt is here made to note all the incompletenesses of citation, even though some of these are serious enough to hamper any student. Nor is this mere pedantry, because quite a few of the original publications are difficult of access at best.

1. Freud, S.: Üml;ber den Ursprung der hinteren Nervenwurzeln im Rückenmark von Ammocoetes (Petromyzon Planeri),  Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Mathematisc