ABSTRACT
The relationship between Karl Abraham and S. Freud went through a number of major changes. Abraham became familiar with Freud's work while he was at the Burgholzli Clinic. Research into Abraham makes clear that his importance to Freud was far greater than would be expected based on the literature published over the years. When, in late 1907, Abraham settled in Berlin as an independent psychoanalyst, he could base what he was doing only on a few books by Freud in which the theory was articulated. Abraham thought that the original disillusionment in love must have taken place before the child had overcome the Oedipus complex. The painting by Segantini portraying the bad mother that Abraham describes seems to fit Green's account remarkably well. Abraham had a number of characteristics that call to mind Green's dead mother complex. Abraham knew what a sense of total abandonment and the accompanying depression felt like.
