A stylistic perspective on Freud's work: from medical operation to operative metaphor in the new complete edition of the letters to Wilhelm Fliess

Abstract

This article proposes a reconsideration of the links between psychoanalysis, literature, and the language sciences by approaching psychoanalytic texts through close attention to stylistic detail. We begin with the question of metaphor, intersecting with that of translation and the editorial history of Freud’s works, in order to explore a reading event: the rediscovery of the Letters to Fliess in the new complete French translation. We show how a figurative complex radiates from the metaphor of the operation, seen as a living figure in passages concerning Emma Eckstein. In this way, Freud’s style anticipates the later discovery of the cure, the Oedipus complex, and transference. Like that of the truly modern writer, Freud’s writing moves ahead of the science it foresees and announces. Thus, the question of style reopens a dialogue in which psychoanalysis and literature can mutually enrich one another - while maintaining their essential otherness.