Cervantes Read by Freud: A Perspective

Abstract

Sigmund Freud felt very attracted throughout his life by Miguel de Cervantes’ works, which led him to become a self-taught of Spanish in order to read Don Quixote. However, Freud cited Cervantes’ work very little along his scientific production. Freud's references to Cervantes and his texts and characters can be mostly found in his voluminous correspondence. There are two revealing epistolary collections that can shed light on the subject that concerns us: a collection of letters sent to Martha Bernays during the period between 1882 and 1886 (The Bridal Letters), and another collection (1871-1881), known as The Youth Letters, linked to his friend Eduard Silberstein. All these mentions are limited to two Cervantine texts: Don Quixote and The Dialogue of the Dogs. Freud and Silberstein founded a secret literary society ("Academia Castellana"), and they usually communicated in Spanish. This article examines the link between Freud and Cervantes and provides some details about the possible influence of the works of the classical Spanish writer on the scientific contributions of the author of psychoanalysis. In some paragraphs of Don Quixote there is a clear Freudian symbolism, whereas in the exemplary novel The Dialogue of the Dogs, a methodological development of psychoanalytic interview can be found which would be raised by Freud almost three hundred years later.