E. Silberstein is the friend from adolescence who left a mark on Freud’s life, from the time Freud was thirteen years old. Their rich correspondence between 1871 and 1881, essentially based on Freud’s letters, conjures up a portrait of the young Freud. Contrary to the “official” idea of a non-problematic adolescence, we would argue that this relation was marked by intense sexual conflicts and by a passionate friendship which ended, like so many other male friendships prior to this, in a break up.

Adolescence, T. 31 n°1, pp. 219-226.