ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origins of the epistemophilic drive, its paradoxical relationship with primary sadism and the important role played by the environment of the young child in the cathexis and development of this drive. Starting from the disagreement between Freud and Leonardo da Vinci on the relations between love and the thirst for knowledge, the author explores Freud’s blind spots in his interpretation of the broken crockery of the young Goethe and in the castration anxieties of Little Hans. The chapter ends with a description of the various pathologies of this drive.
