Isidor Sadger's Images as the Other: Psychoanalysis between Life Writing and Literary Experimentalism

Abstract:This article examines the biographical and psychoanalytic works of Freud's biographer Isidor Sadger (1867–1942), placing these works within the broader context of the role of lifewriting genres in the history of psychoanalysis. Sadger is presented as a key figure in the development of one psychographic genre in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (1902–1938). Although one of the most prolific authors within Freud's circle, Sadger's works remain largely forgotten. The author analyzes Sadger's unknown psychographic and biographic works, and reveals his largely overlooked theories of literature and the psychology of creators. A close reading of his biography, Recollecting Freud (Sigmund Freud, persönliche Erinnerungen), sheds new light on the relationship between life writing, literary experimentalism, and early psychoanalysis.