Abstract

This paper discusses Else Voigtländer’s views on psychoanalytic concepts such as character formation, repression, psychoanalytic interpretation, and sexuality, which she formulated between 1911 and 1928. It also considers Freud’s reply to her in 1911, in which he refers to Goethe’s “Daimon and Tyche” to underscore the importance of considering both constitutional and accidental factors in studying character formation. Now, more than a century later, one might ask: How do Voigtländer’s thoughts resonate in a wider, contemporary psychoanalytic context with its enhanced theoretical framework, including the paradigm of intersubjectivity?