The Wolf Man's Novel

Bibliographic Data

ID6033096
AuthorsDavid Hadar (0000-0003-1717-8609, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume69
Issue4
Pages559-578
Publication date2012-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican imago (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0065-860X • E-ISSN: 1085-7931
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/aim.2012.0025
OpenAlexW2156338425
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited13

The Wolf Man's Novel David Hadar (bio) This essay will argue that Sergei Pankejeff, or the "Wolf Man" (1887-1971), the subject of Freud's From the History of an Infantile Neurosis (1918 [1914]), desired to be a character in a novel. That is to say, he wished not only to behave like the heroes of his favorite works of fiction but also to have his life chronicled in a novelistic fashion. Recognizing the extent to which Pankejeff saw his treatment with Freud, and the texts potentially resulting from it, as an opportunity to be the protagonist of a novel should, it is hoped, give readers a more nuanced understanding both of Pankejeff's actions—such as his choice of spouse—and of the case history as a genre. It could be said that Freud was the first to note both Pankejeff's enthusiasm for being featured in a published text and his readiness to seize the opportunity. In the "Introductory Remarks" to From the History of an Infantile Neurosis, he writes: "[o]nly [the] infantile neurosis will be the subject of my communication. In spite of the patient's direct request, I have abstained from writing a complete history of his illness, of his treatment, and of his recovery, because I recognized that such a task was technically impracticable and socially impermissible" (1918 [1914], p. 8, emphasis added). The immediate significance of this statement is to point out that his patient did not restrain Freud in choosing his material. But the Wolf Man's direct request shows nevertheless that he wanted Freud to create a very different text from the kind Freud actually wrote. He wished Freud to write a book that incorporates his adult life. The narcissistic wish to be immortalized in a book is not unique.1 Some people are willing to pay hefty sums for a book to be written or ghostwritten about their lives. Robert Paul (2006) writes [End Page 559] that it is a "frequent fantasy" in psychoanalytic patients, "that they will be written up as a classic case in the [psychoanalytic, professional] literature" (p. 182). The Wolf Man's wish, I will claim, was different: because he has novelistic ideas of what constitutes a book, he wishes to become a character in a novel. In order to substantiate this claim I will first suggest that Pankjeff is a coauthor of the case and that therefore it is essential to look at the literary background he brought with him to the treatment. From there, I will follow in a roughly chronological order the stages of Pankejeff's lifelong desire to be part of a novel, including the origins of the Wolf Man's identification with fictional characters and how that identification shaped certain aspects of his life, particularly his choice of spouse. Arguing that the Wolf Man had reason to see Freud as a potential novelist, I will conclude by examining how the Wolf Man's literary wish affected the course of treatment and the reception of the case history. Commentators have found that Freud's work can be read and appreciated not as scientific innovation but as literature. One of the latest proponents of such a view is Perry Meisel, who writes: "when Freud claimed . . . that the poets . . . had been the real pioneers in the exploration of the unconscious, there was . . . a genuine invitation to treat psychoanalysis itself as a poetic achievement" (2007, p. 8). According to Meisel, and many others whom he cites in his history of the reception of psychoanalysis in literary circles, Freud should be viewed, among other possibilities, as an imaginative writer. Other interpreters, even more specific, have identified Freud as a novelist. Steven Marcus in his influential paper classifies Dora's case history as a "late-Victorian romance" (1974/1993, p. 42) and later suggests that it also resembles "a modern experimental novel" (p. 47). The arguments for seeing Freud as a creative writer in general or as a novelist in particular are convincing, especially when these are nuanced by an awareness that Freud did not see himself primarily as a man of letters, but as a man of science. Most of these arguments trace the source

Aesthetics · Art · Character (mathematics) · Enthusiasm · Epistemology · Literature · Neurosis · Psychoanalysis · Statement (logic) · Subject (documents) · Computer Science · Crime and Detective Fiction Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology · Themes in Literature Analysis

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub