Monique Schneider : between the object and the witness, the friend

Friendship is first conceived of as being situated at the origins of psychoanalysis. The bond forming being Freud and W. Fliess represents an anaclitic structure, permitting a overlapping between two dimensions of the human – life and mind – or between two disciplines applying themselves to the knowledge of one level of the real: biology and psychology. Sharing between these two realms is also found in the “ narcissisitic self-splitting ” studied by S. Ferenczi, which helps to understand the role played by trauma, whether in the birth of a friendship or in its breaking-off.
The analysis of the couple formed by Freud and E. Silberstein will show another structure: within it the friend becomes the confidant to whom is confided the confession of links formed outside the area of friendship. The confidant to whom these links – Freud then speaks of Gisela Fluss – are offered as so many sacrifices.