[The "Wolf Man" or the problem of biography and autobiography in the history of psychoanalysis]

In the field of biography and autobiography, the "Wolf Man" constitutes a particularl problematic case for the historian of psychoanalysis. The central problem concerns the widespread circulation outside of the Freudian corpus of the fictitious name chosen by Freud to designate a patient. The diverse metamorphoses of this circulation are analyzed here in different texts by authors of varied backgrounds. Components of the "Wolf Man" as a historical case include an analytical account, a testimony, a partial autobiography and a partial biography, as well as autobiographical interviews. In all of these writings, under the biographical guise, a patient is made to talk about himself, but not in his own name. The author does not intend to propose a reinterpretation of the clinical case, but to question the process of "removal" of the patient, instituted by each of these texts individually, and as a whole. This examination is undertaken because it concerns indissociably the analyst and the historian of psychoanalysis.