|
|
Volume
2 no 1 The Influence of Wilhelm Fliess’ Cosmobiology on
Sigmund Freud Frank McGillion Abstract. Sigmund Freud’s psychology was influenced both by
traditional Jewish mysticism and the cosmobiological theories developed by
Wilhelm Fliess (1858-1928). Fliess argued that biological processes were
partially regulated by 23-day and 28-day cycles, time of conception and birth,
the solar year and the eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. We
can term these theories cosmobiological. Freud adopted these ideas although he
was apparently hostile to the ‘occult’. He investigated traditional
astrology, represented by the casting of horoscopes, but concluded that its
efficacy was due to telepathy |