Pour la défense de Schreber: Meurtre de l'âme et psychiatrie 1

This paper tries to show that psychoanalytic and psychiatric interpretations of Daniel Paul Schreber, and assessments of his father Moritz Schreber, are historically unfounded and have made father and son a target of stigma and character assassination. The author holds that Paul Schreber did not suffer from paranoia or paranoid schizophrenia, but from melancholia, or major depression. In particular, Freud's assumption that Schreber's condition would be rooted in homosexuality and erotic desires for his psychiatrist, is challenged. Much of Schreber's behaviour and writing would be due rather to real circumstances, his being victimized by psychiatry, and to thoughts inspired by the occultism of the late 19th century than to delusional persecutory ideas. Likewise, the historical Moritz Schreber is described as a learned humane physician, who does not fit the picture of a crank and torturing house tyrant, as painted by other authors.