Freud’s Personality: Borderline Personality Disorder and the DevilI now turn to a more detailed investigation of Freud’s multiple identifications, and to the evidence that he suffered from reduced (but still noticeable) aspects of borderline character disorder with narcissistic elements. I have already mentioned Freud’s habitual tendency to identify with certain kinds of positive male models—heroes who often took on the function of alter-egos for Freud. This tendency can be interpreted as a seeking of idealized identities, with each hero serving to help focus and define one aspect of Freud’s fractured ego (really, an integrated ego with a number of serious fault lines). Each part of his ego somewhat anxiously sought to provide a new identity better than his father could provide. This search for new identities often was also an expression of Freud’s narcissistic grandiosity—for example, his comparing himself to Moses. Here is a list of figures Freud is known to have identified with at some time of his life. Some were simply strong military heroes: Alexander the Great; William the Conqueror87; Napoleon and his general Massena. Others were part of his anti-Rome ego: Hannibal, Hutten, Oliver Cromwell, Garibaldi.88 Still others were part of his complex Jewish identity: Moses, who, according to Freud, wasn’t a Jew; Jacob,89 who wrestled with the angel; Joseph,90 the interpreter of dreams. Others were part of his pro-Christian or ambivalent Christian self: Jesus, Scipio, St. Paul, and Brentano and Romain Rolland9l (both ex-Catholics). Some were part of his anti-Christian identity: Satan or the Devil, Oedipus, the Anti-Christ, Faust, Frollo, and perhaps Leonardo92 and Goethe93 belong here. Others were scientific, professional, or artistic models whom Freud greatly admired: Brücke, Charcot, Fleischl,94 Fliess,95 and Schnitzler.96 These different models all captured different parts of Freud’s ego—different spirits (or demons) of Freud’s personality. These identities and the motivation behind them can help account for the multicentered ambivalence of Freud, as well as his intense, often overriding fantasy life. The strength of Freud’s fantasies, especially those fantasies connected to castration anxiety, was described by Jung as so strong that they could cause Freud to faint.97 (One is also reminded here of Freud’s involvement in the occult, his hearing of voices in Paris, the effects of cocaine, his belief in “revenants,” and the like—all related to splitting.) The symptoms of Freud described here are similar to those of various character disorders. The character disorder syndromes often have hysterical elements as well, and the various forms of character disorder are related to one another also. Specifically, I would like to propose that the previously mentioned “borderline character disorder” is probably the condition most relevant to an understanding of Freud’s own abnormal |