Wilhelm Stekel was born and educated in Vienna. His interest in psychiatry led him to join a small group of physicians, who, starting in 1902, gathered around Dr. Sigmund Freud to learn the practice of psychoanalysis. In 1895, before he even knew of Freud, Stekel wrote a paper on sexual activity in childhood. He became acquainted with Freud and his techniques in 1902, when he was treated successfully by Freud for a neurotic complaint. Stekel was a strong believer in Freud’s theory of dreams and he began practicing psychoanalysis.
In 1909 Stekel published the Dichtung und Neurose, and in 1911 his extensive Sprache des Traumes. Ernest Jones, the president of the International Psychoanalytic Association, found in it “bright ideas but also many confused ones”. He observed and wrote that Stekel had very little interest in theory, was very practical and had a ready access to the unconscious.
Stekel contributed much to our knowledge of Symbolism. He was recognized in this field as, “…having greater intuitive genius than Freud.” Jones, however, felt he relied too much on judgment and his intuition and speculations were not dependedable. Freud found Stekel’s paper “mortifying”. Still, when Freud founded the monthly Zentralblatt fuer Psychoanalise und Psychotherapie, Stekel became its joint author. When he resigned his membership from the Vienna Society in 1912, Freud’s group of followers withdrew their subscription from the periodical, and its publication ceased the following year.
Stekel wrote prolifically in many fields publishing papers on a wide range of subjects extending from the psychology of everyday subjects to the psychological treatment of epilepsy. His books include Der Wille zum Schlaf (1915), Der Wille zum Leben (1920) and Storungen des Trieb- und Affektlebens (9 vol., 1924-27). In 1933 he wrote Der Seelenarzt.
In 1938, following the take over of Austria by Nazi Germany, Stekel fled to England. There he wrote his last book Technick der Analytischen Psychotherapy. In the preface of his book he criticized the cult of the orthodox psychoanalysis with its lengthy and expensive treatment and propagated more efficient methods. Stekel considered medical training indispensable to the psychoanalysis “since the boundaries between psychic and somatic determination can never be easy to establish”. His work and writings, while contributing much to the files, are still controversial.
Stekel committed suicide in London in 1940.