title: [Pleasure and confusion. A footnote to Freud's translations of Mill].
abstract: In 1863 Theodor Gomperz came to England to propose to Helen Taylor Mill, step-daughter of J. S. Mill. For several months he delayed the proposal while studying transcripts of the Philodemus papyri in the Bodleian Library. There a threatening note, supposedly left on his desk, triggered an attack of paranoia. My study of this incident, initially a mere footnote, expanded into an examination of the obscure causes of this attack. The philosophical question of the nature of desire and the researcher's passion to reconstruct a fragmented classical text are related to Gomperz's unfocussed relationship with both Mill and his step-daughter, and his ensuing confusion between reality and fantasy. The incident is considered paradigmatic of the perils of scholarly research, when the desire to possess knowledge becomes entangled with transferential relationships.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Molnar
mesh_terms: D001317:Austria; D015709:Correspondence as Topic / Q000266:history*; D004739:England; D005197:Famous Persons; D005619:Freudian Theory; D005858:Germany; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008149:Love; D008297:Male; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000266:history*; D010681:Philology, Classical / Q000266:history*; D010684:Philosophy / Q000266:history*; D010990:Pleasure-Pain Principle; D011572:Psychoanalysis / Q000266:history*; D012106:Research / Q000266:history*; D014175:Translating