Georg Groddeck's maternal turn: its evolution and influence on early psychoanalysts

The paper examines the biographical, cultural and clinical influences on the "maternal turn" of Georg Groddeck, a German physician and correspondent of Sigmund Freud. It demonstrates Groddeck's influence on Sándor Ferenczi, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann and Karen Horney, each of whom influenced generations of psychoanalysts. The authors explore the resonance of Groddeck's work with several concepts of contemporary psychoanalysis and raise the question as to whether the roots of these psychoanalytic concepts were seeded by Groddeck's "maternal turn", passed on by the above psychoanalysts through intergenerational psychoanalytic training and further elaborated by later investigators who were not necessarily familiar with the work of Groddeck.