Felix Gattel, a medical doctor, was born in Berlin on December 14, 1870, and died in 1904. He is known in the history of psychoanalysis as Sigmund Freud's first student.

Gattel traveled from San Francisco to Würzburg, Germany, to complete his studies. Though he specialized in neurology, he spent May to October 1897 in Vienna, studying with Freud (Masson, Jeffrey M., 1985). He published a few articles but after 1899 all trace of Gattel was lost. The exact date of his death is not known, but Wilhelm Fliess indicates in his writings that he died in 1906. Subsequent research by Michael Schröter and Ludger M. Hermanns has led to the conclusion that he died on October 17, 1904.

Gattel followed the same initial scientific education as Freud, beginning his career in pathological anatomy. His interest then turned to neurosis and sexuality. He learned about Freud while he was doing research, in particular, through an article...