ABSTRACT
Such a topic as the subject of this essay can get quickly out of hand. For one thing, there is little in Freud's gargantuan corpus that fails to bear on the mind–body relation in some respect. For another, on this subject, as on others, Freud's thinking and opinions are not static, but develop over time. Furthermore, in a controversy whose various positions lend themselves to alternative modes of classification and categorization, Freud's stances are often ambiguous (at times deliberately so). Moreover, an exhaustive historical, philosophical, scientific, and clinical literature addresses Freud's writing on what Schopenhauer termed the “world knot.” Finally, when turning toward “mind–body” we, like Freud, face what may well be a philosophically and scientifically insoluble problem. But here, as elsewhere, science and philosophy no longer seek absolute clarity and certainty (Wallace, 1988a).
