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Wilhelm Fliess
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Wilhelm Fliess (24 October 1858 – 13 October 1928) was a German otolaryngologist who practised in Berlin. On Josef Breuer's suggestion, Fliess attended several conferences of Sigmund Freud in 1887 in Vienna, and the two soon formed a strong friendship. Through their extensive correspondence and a series of personal meetings ("congresses" as Freud described them), Fliess came to play an important part in the development of psychoanalysis.
Fliess developed several idiosyncratic theories, such as reflex nasal neuroses, postulating a connection between the nose and the genitals, and vital periodicity, forerunner of the popular concepts of biorhythms that never found scientific favor outside of psychoanalytic circles, though others, such as the idea of innate bisexuality, were incorporated into Freud's theories.
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Wilhelm Fliess (24 October 1858 – 13 October 1928) was a German otolaryngologist who practised in Berlin. On Josef Breuer's suggestion, Fliess attended several conferences of Sigmund Freud in 1887 in Vienna, and the two soon formed a strong friendship. Through their extensive correspondence and a series of personal meetings ("congresses" as Freud described them), Fliess came to play an important part in the development of psychoanalysis.
Fliess developed several idiosyncratic theories, such as reflex nasal neuroses, postulating a connection between the nose and the genitals, and vital periodicity, forerunner of the popular concepts of biorhythms that never found scientific favor outside of psychoanalytic circles, though others, such as the idea of innate bisexuality, were incorporated into Freud's theories. Freud referred occasional patients to him for treatment of their neurosis through anaesthetization of the nasal mucosa with cocaine, and through nasal surgery. Together, Fliess and Freud developed a Project for a Scientific Psychology, which was later abandoned.
Emma Eckstein (1865-1924) had a particularly disastrous experience when Freud referred the then 27-year old patient to Fliess for surgery to remove the turbinate bone from her nose, ostensibly to cure her of premenstrual depression. Eckstein haemorrhaged profusely in the weeks following the procedure, almost to the point of death as infection set in. Freud consulted with another surgeon, who removed a piece of surgical gauze that Fliess had left behind. Eckstein was left permanently disfigured, with the left side of her face caved in. Despite this, she remained on very good terms with Freud for many years, becoming a psychoanalyst herself.
Fliess also remained close friends with Freud. He even predicted Freud's death to be near the age of 51, through one of his complicated bio-numerological theories ("critical period calculations"). Their friendship, however did not last to see that prediction out: in 1904 their friendship disintegrated due to Fliess's belief that Freud had given details of a periodicity theory Fliess was developing to a plagiarist. Freud died at 83 years of age.
Freud ordered that his correspondence with Fliess be destroyed. It is only known today because Marie Bonaparte bought Freud's letters to Fliess and refused to permit their destruction.
Fliess's son Robert (1895-1970) was also a psychoanalyst and a prolific writer in that field. He devised the phrase ambulatory psychosis.
Though Fliess' ideas are often ridiculed today, modern science has in fact revealed a connection between the nose and the genitals. The nose is now known to contain erectile tissue, and this may also become engorged during sexual arousal as a side-effect of the signals fired off by the autonomic nervous system to trigger changes in the genitals of both men and women. A condition exists known as honeymoon rhinitis, in which men and women experience nasal stuffiness during sex, and a small number of people are known to sneeze, sometimes uncontrollably, when engaging in or even thinking about sexual activity. The existence of evolutionary relics within the autonomic nervous system has been hypothesised as a cause.
Bibliography
- Wilhelm Fließ: Die Beziehungen zwischen Nase und weiblichen Geschlechtsorganen (In ihrer biologischen Bedeutung dargestellt), VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2007 (In German)
- Sigmund Freud: Briefe an Wilhelm Fließ 1887 – 1904. S. Fischer Verlag, 2. Auflage (incl. Errata und Addenda) 1999.
- With Sigmund Freud: The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904, Publisher: Belknap Press, 1986, ISBN 0674154215
- Ernest Jones:
- -- (1953). Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. Vol 1: The Young Freud 1856-1900.
- -- (1955). Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. Vol 2: The Years of Maturity 1901-1919.
- (1957). Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. Vol 3: The Last Phase 1919-1939. London: Hogarth Press.
- Robert Fliess:
- Psychoanalytic Series - Volume 1: Erogeneity and Libido : Addenda to the Theory of the Psychosexual Development of the Human.
- Psychoanalytic Series, Volume 2: Ego and Body Ego: Contributions to Their Psychoanalytic Psychology
- Psychoanalytic Series, Volume 3: Symbol, Dream and Psychosis.
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