Abstract

The authors examine Freud’s clinical cases dedicated to Emmy von N. and The Rat Man in a philological perspective. They start with the analysis of the notes taken by Freud during the treatments and then they focus on the way in which the notes were used in the final drafting of the clinical cases. They observe that Freud’s clinical writings disregarded the philological adherence of the notes and that the author considered them as a simple trace to be reworked from a formal and also substantial point of view. The lack of coincidences between the notes and the published texts must not be considered as an error or a stretch. It needs to be intended as a legitimate and acceptable variation with the purpose of introducing some significant openings in the meaning and new possible interpretations.