Kollerstrom, Oscar

This collection was put together by Oscar Kollerstrom, a pupil of Georg Groddeck (1866-1934). Groddeck is often regarded as the 'father of psychosomatic medicine' and even as the source of inspiration for Freud's concept of the 'Id'. Certainly the two men corresponded and directly influenced each other. Groddeck's life and career can be summarized in brief as follows: he was born in Bad Ksen on the Saale, Germany. His parents, Karl Groddeck, who was a physician, and Karoline Koberstein, had four children in all: Hans, Wolf, Lina, and the youngest, Georg. His father passed away in 1885, his mother in 1892.

In 1889, Groddeck qualified as a doctor having studied medicine under Dr Ernst Schweninger, Otto von Bismark's personal physician. In 1896, Groddeck married Else von der Goltz. They had a daughter Barbara, and separated in 1901.

Groddeck and his sister Lina opened a fifteen-bed sanatorium in Baden-Baden in 1900. He published several books: Hin zu Gottnatur [Toward God Nature] in 1909, The Vicar of Langewiesche (1909), a novel, and Nasamecu - a book of popular medicine - that appeared in 1913. Dreams and psychoanalysis were becoming increasingly important elements in Groddeck's approach to medicine. He began to relate his dreams to listeners and edited a house journal, Satanarium, in order to communicate his ideas.

Groddeck first wrote to Freud in May 1917. That same year he published 'Psychic Conditioning and Psychoanalytic Treatment of Organic Disorders'. Over the following two years Groddeck saw through the publication of his first psychoanalytic novel, Thomas Weltlein, later published as The Seeker of Souls. Groddeck's editor forwarded the book to Freud who commended Groddeck to the Berlin Psychoanalytic Association. The two men then met for the first time in 1920, at the 6th International Psychoanalytic Congress at The Hague.

In 1923, Groddeck married his assistant, Emmy von Voigt, a former patient of his. He published The Book It, and later that same year accused Freud plagiarizing some terminology. 1920s were filled with more publications, lectures, public appearances travels to United Kingdom. 1934, suffered two heart attacks, second which, June, proved fatal.

From the guide to the The Georg Groddeck Archive of Oscar Kollerstrom, 1920s, (University of Essex: Albert Sloman Library)