Search results

The book is the first systematic study of the beginnings of psychoanalysis on Polish lands in Galicia (Austria-Hungary) and Congress Poland (Russia) during the partitions of Poland in the years between 1900 and 1918. The birth of the movement was presented on a broad cultural background, as an element of the assimilation processes among Polish Jews. At the same time, Freud's and Jung's theories began to gain popularity in Polish medical, philosophical, artistic and literary circles. By 1918, over a dozen articles on psychoanalysis had been published in Polish scientific and philosophical journals. Freud himself was vitally interested in this process, sending Ludwig Jekels to Krakow in the role of – as he wrote – an "apostle" of his theory in the circles of the Polish intelligentsia.

The article presents the dispute between Freud and Fließ concerning the bisexual theory of the latter. According to Fließ, Freud inadvertently conveyed the main ideas of this theory to his patient, Hermann Swoboda, who included them in his article, which he published. Not enough of this. The latter conveyed them to Otto Weininger, who also drew on them in his famous book Sex and Character. The result was public accusation of plagiarism made by Fließ against Swoboda and Weininger and the breaking of friendship with Freud. In the article, I argue that in this case the issue of alleged plagiarism is problematic and at least ambiguous, not allowing the formulation of categorical opinions.