Sigmund Freud

An inscribed, first edition presentation copy of Freud's Die Infantile Cerebrallähmung to Rudolph Reitler.

• Sigmund Freud (Austrian).
• Vienna: Alfred Hölder, 1897.
• Octavo.
• 327 pages.
• 3 folding charts, prospectus and publisher’s ads to inner wrappers.
• Original yellow wrappers printed in black, housed in a marbled case.

The rare first edition of this significant work on cerebral palsy, Freud’s final neurological treatise before devoting his career to psychoanalysis. An exceptional presentation copy inscribed to his friend and colleague Dr. Rudolph Reitler, the first person to practice psychoanalysis after Freud: ‘Herr Dr. R. Reitler /Freundshaftlich / Verf(asser)’.

Freud’s first scientific specialty was neurology, and he trained at the Salpêtrière in Paris with the famous neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. ‘By 1897 Freud had become a leading authority on the subject of children’s paralyses, so it was natural that Carl Nothnagel, in planning his encyclopaedia of medicine, should ask Freud to write the section on infantile cerebral paralysis. The work... contains an excellent description of the various forms of cerebral palsy, with precise classification of the different spastic symptoms and reference to the extra-pyramidal symptoms... Freud is today considered a founder of of pediatric neurology, and Pollack called Freud’s Infantile Cerebrallähmung “one of the most important works ever written on this subject”’ (Hook & Norman, The Norman Library of Science and Medicine F32).

The recipient of this copy, Rudolph Reitler (1865-1917) attended lectures by Freud while studying medicine at the University of Vienna and soon became one of his close associates. In 1902 he received a postcard from Freud inviting him to join a new discussion group on psychoanalysis, the groundbreaking Wednesday Psychological Society (later the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society), of which the physicians Wilhelm Stekel, Alfred Adler, Max Kahane were also founding members.