Földvári Books

Freud’s Early Neurological Case Study

[Freud, Sigmund]

[Ein Fall von Muskelatrophie mit ausgebreiteten Sensibilitätsstörungen (Syringomyelie)] [In:] Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift.Sonnabend, den 28. März 1885. Nr. 13. Fünfunddreissigster Jahrgang. [Bound with:] Sonnabend, den 4. April 1885. Nr. 14.

[Vienna]: [Dr. L. Wittelshöfer (Druck der k. Wiener Zeitung)], 1884. First edition. Complete issues without covers. Printed in two columns, each counted as a page. Freud’s paper appears on pp. 389–392; 425–429. Modern half leather, marbled paper boards. pp. [385]–416; [417]–448. Paper yellowed due to age, otherwise fine.

Freud’s early neurological research, one of his only three clinical case studies.

An early publication by Freud and one of only three clinical case studies he authored during his brief engagement with neurology. Written before his shift to psychoanalysis, this study describes a case of syringomyelia, a disorder characterized by fluid-filled cavities in the spinal cord, leading to progressive muscle atrophy and sensory disturbances. Freud employed a gold chloride staining technique he had developed, which allowed for enhanced microscopic examination of nerve structures. He had introduced this method in A New Histological Method for the Study of Nerve-Tracts in the Brain and Spinal Cord (1884) and applied it here to study the medulla oblongata and its fibrillary tracts. His observations contributed to the evolving understanding of syringomyelia, which had only recently (1882) been defined as a clinical syndrome by Otto von Kahler and Friedrich Schultze.

Published in Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, Austria’s leading medical journal, this study stands alongside Ein Fall von Hirnblutung mit indirekten basalen Herdsymptomen bei Scorbut (1884), on intracerebral hemorrhage, and Akute multiple Neuritis der spinalen und Hirnnerven (1886), on cranial and spinal polyneuritis, as Freud’s only clinical case reports. Published shortly before his pivotal visit to Jean-Martin Charcot in Paris, it illustrates his early engagement with clinical neuropathology at a time when syringomyelia was only beginning to be recognized as a distinct neurological condition.

This paper is not included in Gesammelte Werke (GW), but appears only in Sigmund Freud Gesamtausgabe (SFG), vol. 1–4 (Die voranalytischen Schriften, 1877–1894), edited by Christfried Tögel.

In its original periodical form. Extremely scarce. Meyer-Palmedo 1884a

Meyer-Palmedo 1885c

Tögel, C. (1994). "... und gedenke die Wissenschaft auszubeuten": Sigmund Freuds Weg zur Psychoanalyse. Edition Diskord; Walusinski, O. (2012). History of the emergence and recognition of syringomyelia in the 19th century. Vesalius, 18(1), 18–29.; Wijdicks, E. F. M. (2020). Was Sigmund Freud an accidental neurologist? The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(4), 300–303.

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