ABSTRACT
As Freud began to work with neurotic patients and attempted to formulate a theory to organize his clinical findings, he turned to art as an aid. From the very beginning of his work in psychoanalysis, he was struck with the link between hysterical symptoms and creative writing. As early as May 1897 he recognized the existence of similar mechanisms in both (1887—1902b, p. 256). To illustrate this connection, he cited an episode surrounding the writing of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. 1
