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Much has been written about Victor Tausk in the recent psychoanalytic literature and elsewhere, generating a great deal of controversy primarily because of his bizarre death and the nature of his professional involvement with Sigmund Freud and Helene Deutsch (see Eissler, 1971,1974,1977,1983; Kanzer, 1971,1972,1973; Neumarkt, 1973,1977; Roazen, 1969,1971,1972,1977; Sperber, 1972; Tausk, 1973). In this paper, an attempt will be made to clarify certain issues so as to facilitate a better understanding of the complexities of these relationships as they evolved within the context of the early psychoanalytic movement.
Tausk, who had become a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1909, sought analysis with Freud in December 1918, shortly after returning to Vienna from three years of military service as a physician in World War I. When Freud understandably declined to accept him as a patient due to the character of their prior contacts, he made arrangements, possibly at Freud's urging, with Deutsch, who had undertaken a training analysis with Freud three months before. Tausk entered analysis with Deutsch in January, 1919, being her first case, and used his hours almost exclusively to berate Freud, so much so that Deutsch's own analysis soon was dominated by her reporting to Freud what Tausk was saying about him and how bright she found Tausk to be. Irritated by this development, Freud, late in March 1919, offered Deutsch the alternative of either ending her treatment of Tausk or forfeiting her analysis with him. Deutsch agreed to terminate Tausk abruptly and, on July 3,