[Splinters and germs of thought. Freud's notebooks from 1901 till 1910]

The authors discovered a series of small notebooks from the years 1901-1915 in the Freud Collection of the Library of Congress (two of them being not yet accessible). The article provides a first impression of their form, content and characteristics. Some events in Freud's life and his preoccupation with certain matters can now be dated more precisely; some ideas can be related to the treatment of certain patients; the origins of certain metapsychological theories can be pursued. A number of personal contacts are mentioned in these booklets, Freud's travels are often precisely documented. Some aphoristic formulations shed a new light on Freud's self-image.