Freud's Style: Terminology, Metaphor and Textual Strategies in the Works of Sigmund Freud1

“My teacher tells me … and he is the first person who has dared say such a thing … that I have what Herder would call an ‘idiotic’ style, that is, one which is both correct and individual. This incredible fact has quite rightly amazed me, and I do not miss an opportunity to spread the good news (the first of its kind) to the four winds. For example, I am communicating it to you, who had no idea that you were in correspondence with a German stylist. Now … not as someone who has an interest in the matter, but solely as a friend … I would advice you to keep, collect and conserve these letters. You never know!” (my translation)

The present paper aims to cast light on what I consider to be one of the fundamental aspects of Sigmund Freud's work: the style of his writings. The discussion will focus on specific characteristics of his figurative language: the way he employs similitudes and metaphors, the uses to which he puts them, and the stylistic effects of this resort to analogy.