Philosophy, Psychiatry and the Schreber Case

Abstract

Daniel Paul Schreber (1842-1911) was a lawyer and judge, who wrote and published an account of his experiences in an asylum. This account was analysed by Freud, who believed that Schreber's dementia paranoides was the result of his anxiety about his latent desire for his father, and his delusions reflected this desire. Other analysts have concluded that Schreber's hallucinations were the result of his cruel treatment at the hands of his father. This thesis offers an alternative: Schreber's delusional beliefs were a positive mechanism that allowed him to resume a near-normal existence in spite of his debilitating hallucinations.