Narrative Assemblages: Theories and Practices of Psychoanalysis in Central Europe Between Self-Analysis, Life Writing, and Fiction

This dissertation explores the close relationship between psychoanalysis, psycho-medical discourses, literature, and the visual arts of the late 1800s and early 1900s in Central Europe. It addresses the issue of theories and practices of psychoanalysis and asks about the dynamic fluctuation of boundaries between psycho-medical, literary, and lifewriting genres. It provides an innovative overview of the development of the theory and practice of psychoanalysis as part of the modernist breakthrough in Central Europe, encompassing not only psycho-medical discourses but also literature, visual arts, and philosophy. It contributes to the research on the modernist turn in Europe and the culture of fin-de-siècle Vienna. By addressing the dynamic circulation of psychoanalysis in Central European countries, it significantly advances contemporary research on the history of psychoanalysis in Central and Eastern Europe. Moreover, it contributes to the contemporary research on Sándor Ferenczi and the history of Hungarian psychoanalysis. At the same time, by adopting a broad and interdisciplinary research perspective (psychoanalysis, modernist literature and visual art, modernist turn in Central Europe), my dissertation provides the first attempt to map the development of psychoanalytic theory and practice in the light of the generic hybridity of psychoanalytic literature shaped at the intersection of the psycho-medical discourses, life writing, and fiction. This dissertation’s initial question consists of the future methodologies of writing the history of psychoanalysis in Central and Eastern Europe. My focus is on the importance of the relational understanding of research and writing practices. I also emphasize the need to undertake interdisciplinary reflection on the specificity of psychoanalytic literary genres and fin-de-siècle psycho-medical discourses. The following chapters suggest the possibility of rereading the early psychoanalytic literature in terms of its content and various genres. The focus is on the circulation of Freudianism in the territories of present-day Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and southern Germany. My dissertation discusses the creative transformations that psychoanalytic thought underwent in these countries. It also reflects on the specificity of psychoanalytic literary genres and the pivotal role of lifewriting genres in the psychoanalytic movement. My analysis starts with a demonstration of how the origins of Freud’s self-analysis developed in his epistolary practices. In the chapters that follow, I focus on the role of autobiography and (psycho)biography in psycho-medical discourses. I also take a closer look at the importance of diaries for the crucial transformations of psychoanalytic theories and practices in the early 1930s. On the one hand, this dissertation fills a visible gap in research on the history of psychoanalysis in Central Europe before the outbreak of World War II. On the other hand, it offers the first insightful analysis of the role of life writing (i.e., letters, diaries, autobiographies, and biographies) in the development of psychoanalytic thought. Through the use of interdisciplinary research perspectives, such as cultural history, new modernism studies, anthropology of science, emotional history of knowledge, gender studies, and queer theory, my dissertation offers the first in-depth analysis of the development of psychoanalytic theory and practice as a history of the shift from a narrative model (typical of Sigmund Freud), through literary experimentalism (Georg Groddeck) to a model based on empathy and leading to mutual analysis (Sándor Ferenczi).