The name of Wilhelm Stekel is not one of the best known in psychoanalysis, although it was very present in its origins and contributed essential concepts, it could not stand out as much as other of his contemporaries, in fact, Stekel’s name is more quoted to speak. on conflicts within psychoanalysis than on his contributions to theory.
Wilhelm Stekel was born in 1868 in a village in Romania called Bojan, his family was Orthodox Jewish and engaged in trade with great success, Stekel studied medicine in Vienna (Austria) and then opened a gp, however, he had a particular interest in the phenomena of the mind, especially those related to sexuality.
- His interest in psychopathological phenomena led him to publish in 1895 the book On Intercourse in Childhood.
- A work that catches the attention of Sigmund Freud.
- Who sees Stekel as an innate and alert intuition.
- As well as a prolific and living writer.
“The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die noblely for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one. “Wilhelm Stekel-
Wilhelm Stekel went to Freud’s office for psychoanalysis sessions, had a impotence problem and his process with Freud lasted only 8 weeks, which equates to about 48 sessions, apparently failed his symptoms, but the analysis could be maintained. him stable and ease his anguish.
Stekel also had pathological compulsion for masturbation. In fact, he wrote a book entitled Autoerotism: A Psychiatric Study of Onanism and Neurosis, which was not published until after his death. Everything about sexuality has aroused your curiosity. Naturally, psychoanalysis has caught your attention from the beginning. Freud, he became his disciple.
Wilhelm Stekel adopted Freudian thesis with extreme sectarianism. In his autobiography, Freud reads that “he was my Christ, I was his apostle. “When the father of psychoanalysis published The Interpretation of Dreams, Stekel made a fervent critique of the work. one of the few who warned of the importance of this work, an act for which Freud was also grateful.
From 1902, Wilhelm Stekel was present at all major psychoanalytic events of the time. In 1908, he published a new book entitled The States of Nervous Anxiety and Its Treatment, with a preface written by Sigmund Freud himself, who still calls him a “colleague”.
However, Stekel had a way of being and acting that was beginning to test Freud’s patience, irritated by his lack of tact and “indecency. “Stekel talked about her own symptoms and masturbation without the slightest degree of self-censity. Freud disagreed with much of his thinking.
In the psychoanalytic society meetings he recounts episodes of his life that had never happened, and that Freud knew were not true, as he had discussed in psychoanalysis sessions.
The conflict reached a point of no return when Wilhelm Stekel wrote an article on the relationship between names and fate, in which he explained how the name had influenced the professional choice and other aspects of the lives of many patients. Freud criticized him for publishing the names of these patients. Stekel replied that it didn’t matter, because all the cases had been invented.
After this episode, Freud decided to exclude Wilhelm Stekel from his circle, both professional and personal. In a letter to Carl Jung, he went on to say that Stekel was “an absolute pig. Freud asked Stekel to resign as editor of the Psychoanalytic Society. “magazine, but disagreed. Then the father of psychoanalysis fired most of his collaborators, and that’s how the relationship between the two ended forever.
In his autobiography, Wilhelm Stekel states that Sigmund Freud had stolen several of his concepts, that is, that he had been plagiarized. He claimed that the concept of instinct for death and anguish was his creations and that Freud copied them without recognizing their role.
Unlike other dissidents of psychoanalysis, Wilhelm Stekel did not attempt to found a new school or a stream, remained faithful to the basic assumptions of Freudian psychoanalysis, but at the same time marginalized, however, his works have been translated into several languages and have had some impact He married twice, had two children and committed suicide in 1940.