Wilhelm Fliess
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'''Wilhelm Fliess''' ([[October 24]], [[1858]] – [[October 13]], [[1928]]) was a [[Germany|German]] [[otolaryngologist]] who practised in [[Berlin]]. On [[Josef Breuer|Josef Breuer's]] suggestion, Fliess attended several conferences of [[Sigmund Freud]] in [[1887]] in [[Vienna]], and the two soon formed a strong friendship. Through their extensive correspondence and a series of personal meetings ("congresses" as Freud described them), Fliess came to play an important part in the development of [[psychoanalysis]].
Fliess developed several idiosyncratic theories, such as reflex nasal neuroses, postulating a connection between the nose and the genitals, and vital periodicity, forerunner of the popular concepts of [[biorhythm]]s that never found scientific favor outside of psychoanalytic circles, though others, such as the idea of [[innate bisexuality]], were incorporated into Freud's theories. Freud referred occasional patients to him for treatment of their neurosis through anaesthetization of the nasal mucosa with [[cocaine]], and through nasal surgery. Together, Fliess and Freud developed a ''Project for a Scientific Psychology'', which was later abandoned.
[[Emma Eckstein]] (1865-1924) had a particularly disastrous experience when Freud referred the then 27-year old patient to Fliess for surgery to remove the [[turbinate bone]] from her [[nose]], ostensibly to cure her of premenstrual [[Clinical depression|depression]]. Eckstein haemorrhaged profusely in the weeks following the procedure, almost to the point of death as infection set in. Freud consulted with another surgeon, who removed a piece of surgical gauze that Fliess had left behind.<ref> Christopher F. Monte, ''Beneath the Mask: An Introduction to Theories of Personality (6th Edition)'', "Chapter 2: Sigmund Freud - Psychoanalysis: The Clinical Evidence" (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999).</ref> Eckstein was left permanently disfigured, with the left side of her face caved in. Despite this, she remained on very good terms with Freud for many years, becoming a psychoanalyst herself.
Fliess also remained close friends with Freud. He even predicted Freud's death to be near the age of 51, through one of his complicated bio-numerological theories ("critical period calculations"). Their friendship, however did not last to see that prediction out: in 1904 their friendship disintegrated due to Fliess's belief that Freud had given details of a periodicity theory Fliess was developing to a plagiarist. Freud died at 83 years of age.
Freud ordered that his correspondence with Fliess be destroyed. It is only known today because [[Marie Bonaparte]] bought their letters and refused to permit their destruction.
Fliess's son Robert was also a psychoanalyst.
== Bibliography ==
* Wilhelm Fließ: ''Die Beziehungen zwischen Nase und weiblichen Geschlechtsorganen (In ihrer biologischen Bedeutung dargestellt)'', VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2007 (In German)
# Sigmund Freud: Briefe an Wilhelm Fließ 1887 – 1904. S. Fischer Verlag, 2. Auflage (incl. Errata und Addenda) 1999.
* With [[Sigmund Freud]]: ''The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904'', Publisher: Belknap Press, 1986, ISBN 0674154215
* [[Ernest Jones]]:
** -- (1953). Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. Vol 1: The Young Freud 1856-1900.
** -- (1955). Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. Vol 2: The Years of Maturity 1901-1919.
- (1957). Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. Vol 3: The Last Phase 1919-1939. London: Hogarth Press.
==References==
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[[Category:German surgeons|Fliess, Wilhelm]]
[[category:1858 births|Fliess, Wilhelm]]
[[Category:1928 deaths|Fliess, Wilhelm]]
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