Curious Mentions - Bocklin & Goethe

[k_dubs]

I was curious to see if anyone else picked up on Freud giving “clues” to Fliess in their letters about Arnold Bocklin and a Johann Goethe. In both cases it’s as if he’s mentioning them to let Fliess know “you can trust him, he’s like us.” I went down a couple rabbit holes and both men seem to have an affinity for the Occult expressed in their works.

It was very hard to find any info online but to me it seems like a lot of Bocklin’s paintings depicted sacrifice, pagan gods, and rituals. Similarly, the passage about Goethe that was mentioned was in reference to the novel Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship. A book about an androgynous man being attracted to a young girl and his encounters with the secret “Tower Society.”

Anyone else pick up on this? I would love to learn more about Goethe and Bocklin but couldn’t find much about their history.