ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author comments to himself in his first set of interview notes with Edoardo Weiss, he “talked a blue-streak, he scarcely got a word in edge-wise.” Psychoanalysis has now made us familiar with the idea that minor-seeming quirks of character can be exceptionally revealing about someone as a whole. Weiss was particularly concerned with the problem of “derealization,” or feelings of unreality, which Frank too shared in having. The author believes that “Frank” was a genuine case of Weiss’s, who was fascinating to Weiss partly because of all the similarities Weiss found in him to Sigmund Freud’s own special kinds of problems. Of all the various clinical issues Weiss discussed with Freud, those pertaining to the problems of “Frank” played a central-seeming role; part of Weiss’s special interest in “Frank” was that this young patient suffered from potency problems.
