The plow and the peasant. Freud in Groddeck’s mirror

Journal title PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE
Author/s Riccardo Gramantieri
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/1
Language Italian Pages 22 P. 65-86 File size 354 KB
DOI 10.3280/PU2026-001004
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Georg Groddeck (1866-1934) was an innovative psychoanalyst who emphasised the physical aspect of psychotherapy at a time when the psychological viewpoint was still predominant. Describing himself as a “in the wild”, he was, as Martin Grotjahn put it, “untamed”, outside the borders of the psychoanalytic “pasture”. Yet, at a time when Freud was dedicated to safeguarding the movement’s orthodoxy, he had great sympathy for this spa doctor, who had initially opposed psychoanalysis and was now calling himself a psychoanalyst. Groddeck proposed an “id” that influenced the body. He himself claimed to be “in love” perhaps more with Freud than with psychoanalysis. This transferential bond, though inverted, is reminiscent of the relationship between the young Freud and Fliess in Berlin, who initially encouraged Freud to pursue his theories, which were unconventional at the time. Starting from the correspondence between Freud and Groddeck, it is described the relationship in which Freud relives his early years of professional life while impersonating Fliess, and sees in Groddeck himself, the original thinker who tried to affirm his theories in spite of the adverse psychiatric culture of the time.

Keywords: Georg Groddeck; Wilhelm Fliess; Sigmund Freud; History of psychoanalysis; Psychobiography

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Riccardo Gramantieri, L’aratro e il contadino. Freud nello specchio di Groddeck in "PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE" 1/2026, pp 65-86, DOI: 10.3280/PU2026-001004