Zweig, Freud, and the Ends of Criticism

This article aims to revisit the intricate relationship of Stefan Zweig and Sigmund Freud and his close followers, taking as its entry point the radical elimination of Zweig from psychoanalytic historiography. While many found Zweig’s notorious att empt to group Freud with Franz Mesmer and Mary Baker Eddy in Mental Healers at the heart of the antagonistic att itude toward Zweig in the psychoanalytic movement, I argue that Zweig’s glaring criticisms against the rationalistic shift in psychoanalytic theory that had started to take place in his time is the deep source for that rupture. Detailing the history of Zweig’s absenteeism, the paper offers a new outlook on the ethics of repression and alienation in the psychoanalytic movement in its formative period.