Friendship is first conceived of as being situated at the origins of psychoanalysis. The bond forming being Freud and W. Fliess represents an anaclitic structure, permitting a overlapping between two dimensions of the human – life and mind – or between two disciplines applying themselves to the knowledge of one level of the real: biology and psychology. Sharing between these two realms is also found in the “ narcissisitic self-splitting ” studied by S. Ferenczi, which helps to understand the role played by trauma, whether in the birth of a friendship or in its breaking-off.
The analysis of the couple formed by Freud and E. Silberstein will show another structure: within it the friend becomes the confidant to whom is confided the confession of links formed outside the area of friendship. The confidant to whom these links – Freud then speaks of Gisela Fluss – are offered as so many sacrifices.