A short survey is given of the digitization of the Freud Archives, focusing on Eissler’s interviews. On the basis of several paradigmatic items the author highlights some characteristics of Freud’s technique as well as his attitude to supervision and his general idea of psychoanalysis that differs from our views.
Taking Freud's >Beyond the pleasure principle< as a case in point, the author draws attention to how Freud had a tendency to develop different theories simultaneously and to neglect to state how they were related to each other. The theory of traumatic neurosis, which he explains by both the theory of the two egos and the theory of the mental apparatus and the energies at work within it, is cited as an example. Similarly, Freud's definition of the death instinct is also not reconcilable with his previous definition of the instinctual drives. A third example is that of Eros, important parts of whose definition are at variance with Freud's previously formulated definition of the sexual drives. In none of these cases, the author argues, did Freud replace the >old< theory >with the >new< one. He simply retained the old theory and added the new one, without integrating them.