ABSTRACT
The breach with Stekel occurred between the Weimar congress and the Munich congress. During these years there must have been smouldering some of the hatred which was to culminate in the rupture. Still, I have no proof of this assertion, and I know that several times Freud has broken with old friends in similar fashion. At the beginning of the century, he cut adrift from Breuer and Fliess; towards 1912 he severed his relationships with Adler, Stekel, Kahane, and Jung. In the cases of Adler and Jung there were, no doubt, insuperable differences anent scientific matters; but as far as the quarrel with Stekel was concerned, the reasons were mainly personal. There were differences upon matters of theory as well, but no important principles were involved, and it would have been an advantage to the psychoanalytical cause if the two men could have continued to exchange ideas. In his writings, Freud tells the world plainly why he broke with Adler and Jung. As regards Stekel, all he says is that the breach was caused by “matters which it is hardly possible to make public.” The very reticence of this phraseology is what makes it so offensive. The reader might imagine that on one of the Wednesday evenings Stekel had been caught pocketing the spoons ! Even more spiteful is the passage in which Freud refers to “Stekel, so serviceable to begin with, and afterwards so utterly untrustworthy.” If Freud or one of his more immediate pupils finds it necessary to quote Stekel (such quotations are made as seldom as possible), the quotation is always accompanied by an expression of regret that this abominable name has to be introduced.
