The Development of the Influencing Apparatus—A Study of Freud's Article "A Case of Paranoia Running Counter to the Psycho-Analytic Theory of the Disease"

THE TITLE OF FREUD'S PAPER REFERS TO THE THEORY WHICH HE developed in his article on Schreber's psychosis (1911). The persecutor, of the same sex as the patient, was or is the person who basically is loved homosexually by the patient. This thesis seems to be contradicted, however, because the female patient described in 1915 appears to be persecuted by a young man. Even today this problem has not lost any of its intriguing qualities and therefore awakens our full interest. Let me add that the importance of Freud's contribution is greatly enhanced by Edward Bibring's remark (1929) that in this article Freud also touches upon another new subject, namely, the persecution by means of an apparatus (Katan, 1946); (Eissler, 1971, p. 272). Over the years this subject has attracted considerable attention as a result of Tausk's paper on the influencing machine (1919). Bibring's remark makes it clear that Freud (1915a) was ahead of Tausk in investigating this subject.

Freud did not seem to be aware, in his analysis of the case, that