In 1921, a young female doctor is in analysis with Freud. In a diary, she records what moves her. The present volume not only contains a full translation of these records, but also collects four essays by two psychoanalysts and two analytical historians who take their cue from the young doctor's notes to think about Freud and his methods.

The discovery of the diary marks a small sensation for the history of social science. Three factors make the document unique: first, it records not a training analysis, but the analysis of an actual patient; second, the analysis took place before...