Freud in Trieste: Journey to an Ambiguous City

Abstract

This article provides an insightful exploration of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and the city of Trieste. Through an analysis of the correspondence between Freud and his friend Eduard Silberstein, Gandolfi follows those places visited by the future father of psychoanalysis and analyses their link to Freud's life. The journey to Trieste is considered as an experience that played a fundamental role in his future decisions as well as in the development of some of his psychoanalytic theories. The article eventually relates the ambiguous nature of the city – a peculiar space in which North and South, East and West converge – to Freud's own Triestine experience, that not only remits to his initial scientific researches, but also symbolizes a first significant contact with the world of sexuality.