SOURCE: "C. F. Meyer and the Origins of Psychoanalysis," in Monatshefte für Deutschen Unterricht, Deutsche Sprache und Literatur, Vol. XLVII, No. 3, March, 1955, pp. 140-48.

In the essay that follows, Beharriell examines Freud's interest in Meyer's writing as it anticipates major elements of psychoanalytic theory, such as wish-fulfillment, the fantasy Freud names 'the family romance, ' and the psychological significance of art.

In "Freud and Literature," an eminently sane and balanced essay, Lionel Trilling commented on the lack of evidence concerning the literary influences on the founder of psychoanalysis.¹ That there were such influences has of course always appeared certain. The importance of Hamlet and Oedipus in Freud's early thinking is well known. The similarity between his theory of dream meaning and the process of literary symbolism was apparent from the first. Innumerable allusions to literature in his writings reveal a wide acquaintance with literature and a striking...