The Madness of Reason: Stefan Zweig's Schachnovelle as a Cautionary Tale

Abstract: In 2016 the Journal of Austrian Studies published Gilad Sharvit's essay "Zweig, Freud, and the End of Criticism." Drawing on a reading of Die Heilung durch den Geist , Sharvit argues that Zweig's biography of Freud "was meant to be a wake-up call. It meant to remind Freud of the basic principles of Psychoanalysis" (43). This essay seeks to build from and engage with these claims, and it does so by analyzing Zweig's and Freud's conceptualizations of genius and madness. By looking at the thematic and narrational similarities between Schachnovelle and Freud's psychological case studies, the article argues that Zweig's final piece of literary prose was a second attempt to warn us against the hyper-rationalization of psychoanalysis.