"I believe you have created a new type of biography ... ". K. R. Eissler's letters to Wolfgang Hildesheimer
Buchholz, H.; Hildesheimer, W.; Eissler, K.R.; Mozart, W.Amadeus.
Luzifer-Amor Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse 23(46): 148-168
2010
ISSN/ISBN: 0933-3347 PMID: 21560376 Document Number: 638346
These letters, hitherto unpublished except for two and archived in Hildesheimer's estate, were mainly written in 1977/78. They are reactions to Hildesheimer's book about Mozart (1977), centering on two topics: Mozart's relation to his "Bäsle" (female cousin) and their different estimation of The Magic Flute. Eissler emerges as a Mozart connoisseur, "being in love" with the libretto of The Magic Flute which he defends against Hildesheimer. His preoccupation with this opera is testified by a set of manuscripts which are also discussed in this paper. The two writers concurred in their understanding of genius, both of its incommensurable nature and its psychopathology.