Introduction to Schreber’s ‘Memoirs of my nervous illness’: 1973: Samuel Weber
by Julia Evans on January 1, 1973
Introduction to the 1988 edition by Samuel Weber, Translated by Benjamin Gregg
The book:
Memoirs of my nervous illness : Daniel Paul Schreber (1842-1911) :
Published in German 1903 :
Translated and Edited by Ida MacAlpine & Richard A. Hunter : originally published 1955
( The introduction to the 1988 edition was originally published in German as the introduction to Daniel Paul Schreber: Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken: 1973: Published by Verlag Ullstein, Berlin)
See Memoirs of my nervous illness: 1903: D. P. Schreber or here for availability
From the back cover of 1988 edition
First issued in German in 1903, the book waited until 1955 for its publication in English, translated by Drs MacAlpine and Hunter. This edition reprints their work, adding an introduction by Samuel Weber that takes note of the position of the Schreber case in the Lacanian “return” to Freud”. Schreber’s autobiography continues to be widely discussed within contemporary psychoanalytic circles and in other contexts, including continental psychoanalysis, anti-psychiatry, and the renewed concern with the social and domestic history of the nineteenth century.
Samuel M. Weber is (in 1988) Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.)
Available here
References
P27 Daniel Gottlieb Moritz Schreber: Medical Indoor Gymnastics; or, A system of hygenic exercises for home use to be practiced anywhere without apparatus or assistance by young and old of either sex, for the preservation of health and general activity: before 1861: p28 other books by the elder Schreber.
P28: The Biographical Lexicon of Outstanding Physicians of All Times and Peoples: edited by Dr August Hirsch
P28 Dr Schreber Senior: A doctrine of happiness for the physical life of Man.
P29 Daniel Godefredus Schreberus (Daniel Paul’s Great-grandfather): Report on the caterpillars which in 1751 and in the current year caused great devastation to the harvest in Thuringia and adjoining areas of Saxony: around 1764 & his ‘Instructions o stabilizing quicksand and making arid fields into meadows: published in Leipzig: 1764
Selected from the full reference list:
i) Sigmund Freud: Psycho-Analytic Notes on an Autobiographical account of a case of paranoia (Dementia Paranoides): in Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud: vol 24: editor James Strachey: translated Strachey in collaboration with Anna Freud and assisted by Alix Strachey and Alan Tyson: London, Hogarth press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis: 1953-1974: vol 12: p17-18. available here or Case history of Schreber: 1910: Sigmund Freud
ii) Sigmund Freud: Moses and Monotheism:SE XXIII
iii) Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams: Standard Edition: vol 4: p99 Availability : The Interpretation of Dreams: 1st November 1899 (published as 1900): Sigmund Freud or here
iv) Jacques Derrida: Freud and the Scene of Writing: in Derrida: Writing and Difference: translated Alan Bass: Chicago, University of Chicago Press: 1978
v) Note 30) See Georges Bataille: La part maudite: Paris, Editions de Minuit: 1967: On the concept of “restricted economy”, see also Jacques Derrida: From restricted to general economy: in Derrida: Writing and difference: p251-277. Here an interpretation remains to be made which would reveal the social mediation of Schreber’s delusional system not only in the sense of shared notions, but as a structuring factor. One would have to investigate especially the heightened problematic of identity of a (double) God who appears on the one hand as a transcendent Creator, and on the other as a limited subject, the phantasmal presentation of the bourgeois individual.
vi) Sigmund Freud: Fetishism: SE XXI
vii) Jacques Lacan: On a question preliminary to any possible treatment of psychosis: in Lacan: Écrits, a selection : translated by Alan Sheridan: New York, Norton: 1977 : On a question preliminary to any possible treatment of psychosis : 1955-1956 : two most important parts of Seminar III : Jacques Lacan or here
See also Samuel Weber: Rückkehr zu Freud: Jacques Lacan’s Ent-Stellung der Psychanalyse: Berlin, Ullstein: 1978. An English translation: Return to Freud: translated by Michael Levine: Cambridge University Press.
A more complete list of relevant texts:
Availability of Daniel Paul Schreber’s Memoirs of my nervous illness & many of the commentaries Or here
Availability of commentaries & related texts:
– Memoirs of my nervous illness: 1903: D. P. Schreber or here
– Case history of Schreber: 16th December 1910: Sigmund Freud or here
Hallucinations about the ‘Little Men’ : August 1949 (Zürich) : Maurits Katan or here
–Schreber’s Prepsychotic Phase : 1st July 1951 [1953] : Maurits Katan or here
–Further Remarks about Schreber’s Hallucinations : July 1951 [1952] (Amsterdam) : Maurits Katan or here
– Translator’s introduction & analysis of D. P. Schreber’s case: : 1955: Ida MacAlpine & Richard Hunter or available here
– On a question preliminary to any possible treatment of psychosis : 1955-1956 : two most important parts of Seminar III : Jacques Lacan or here : This is dated December 1955 to January 1956 at the end of the text, published in 1958.
– Seminar III: The Psychoses: 1955-1956: from 16th November 1955: Jacques Lacan or here
– Editor’s Introduction (Psycho-Analytic Notes on an autobiographical account of a case of paranoia (Dementia Paranoides) [Case of Schreber] : 1958 : James Strachey or here
– Presentation of the ‘Memoirs’ of President Schreber in French translation: November 1966: Jacques Lacan or available here
– Introduction to Schreber’s ‘Memoirs of my nervous illness’: 1973: Samuel Weber or here
– Introduction to the New Schreber Texts : 1988 : Hans Israëls : Available here
– Introduction to D. P. Schreber’s ‘Memoirs : 2000 : Rosemary Dinnage or here
– Introduction to ‘A bi-lingual edition of Schreber’s Memoirs of my mental illness/ Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken’: August 2005: Richard G. Klein or available here
Practicing Lacanian Psychoanalyst, Earl’s Court, London
Related texts
Texts related to the case of President Schreber here
For further engagements with this case, see ‘Case of President Schreber : 1910’ in References to Sigmund Freud within LacanianWorks or here
Schreber’s case revisited with echoes noted in the family of Fred West by Julia Evans : 11th January 2015 : Available here
Ordinary Psychosis: elaborations of James I/VI, Hamlet & Oedipus by Julia Evans on 28th November 2015 or here
Schreber’s case revisited with echoes noted in the family of Fred Westby Julia Evans on 11th January 2015 : Available here
An Examination of ‘Learned Helplessness by Julia Evans on 11th December 2014 or here
What Cannot Be Said: Desire, Fantasy, Real : 11th September 2013 : Dominique Holvoet or here
Psychosis, or Radical Belief in the Symptom : 17th June 2012 : Éric Laurent : given in Tel Aviv, Israel or here
The case, from unease to the lie : 2002 : Éric Laurent or here
Three Enigmas: Meaning, Signification, Jouissance : February 1993 : Éric Laurent or here
Lacan and the Discourse of the Other : 1968 : Anthony Wilden or here
Some forms of emotional disturbance and their relationship to schizophrenia (‘as if’ case) : 1942 : Helene Deutsch : See here
Psychoses of passion : 1921 : Gaétan Gatian de Clérambault or here
Misinterpretative delusional states : 1909 : Paul Sérieux & Joseph Capgras or here
The prognosis of dementia praecox: the group of schizophrenias : 1908 : Eugene Bleuler or here
Dementia Praecox : 1896 : Emil Kraepelin or here
Letter of 24th January 1895 and Draft H, Paranoia (The Emma Eckstein episode) : 24th January 1895 : Sigmund Freud or here
Other texts
Texts related to the case of President Schreber here
By Samuel Weber here
By Daniel Paul Schreber here
By Sigmund Freud here
Notes on texts by Sigmund Freud : here
By Jacques Lacan here
Notes on texts by Jacques Lacan here
Availability of Daniel Paul Schreber’s Memoirs of my nervous illness & many of the commentaries by Julia Evans on 2nd September 2015 or here:
Of the clinic here
Ordinary Psychosis here
Use of power here
Some Lacanian History : here
Topology : here
Lacanian Transmission : here