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(a) German Editions:
1893 Wien. med. Wsckr., 43, (37), 1513-20. (September 9.)
1906 S.K.S.N., 1, 1-13. (1911, 2nd ed.; 1920, 3rd ed.; 1922, 4th ed.)
1925 G.S., 1, 243-57.
(b) English Translation:
‘Charcot’
1924 C.P., 1, 9-23. (Tr. J. Bernays.)
Included (No. XXII) in Freud's own collection of abstracts of his early works (1897b). The present translation is based on that of 1924.
From October, 1885, to February, 1886, Freud worked at the Salpêtrière in Paris under Charcot.1 This was the turning-point in his career, for it was during this period that his interest shifted from neuropathology to psychopathology—from physical science to psychology. Whatever other and deeper factors were concerned in the change, the immediate determinant was undoubtedly the personality of Gharcot. As he wrote to his future wife soon after his arrival in Paris (November 24, 1885): ‘I think I am changing a great deal. I will tell you in detail what is affecting me. Charcot, who is one of the greatest of physicians and a man whose common sense is touched by genius, is simply uprooting my aims and opinions. I sometimes come out of his lectures as though I were coming out of Notre Dame, with a new idea of perfection. But he exhausts me; when I come away from him I no longer have any desire to work at my own silly things; it is three whole days since I have done any work, and I have no feelings of guilt. My brain is sated,