Freud's narrow escape and the discovery of transference.

Contends that Freud discovered transference in connection with material derived from his treatment of Emma Eckstein. The last chapter of Studies on Hysteria by J. Breuer and S. Freud (1895) in which Freud's 1st published use of the term transference occurs, can be read as a working through of the crisis that occurred when Eckstein nearly died. This concept, it is argued, explained Freud's patient's disturbed feelings toward him as a "false connection" and thereby helped to free him of feelings of personal involvement in her libidinal demands. The story of the troubled circumstances under which Freud discovered transference provides insight into the defensive nature of the concept. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud as Pegasus yoked to the plough.

In a letter to Fliess at the time of Freud's father's death, Freud referred to himself as "Pegasus yoked to the plough." Meanings condensed in this phrase have remained unexamined for over 30 years. Part I identifies and analyzes references embedded in the phrase and proposes an interpretation: Important early experiences, stirred up by his father's death, were grasped momentarily and expressed in an image from a poem by Schiller (1796). I believe that in writing the phrase, Freud revealed a well-kept secret: that his early experiences included maternal seduction and the primal scene. Part II examines the fate of the memories of these traumatic experiences and discusses the implication of their repression for Freud's rejection of the Seduction Theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)