FREUD SIGMUND: (1856-1939)

FREUD SIGMUND: (1856-1939)

‘For more than a generation I have struggled with opposition to psychoanalysis’

 

FREUD SIGMUND: (1856-1939) Austrian neurologist, the founder of psychoanalysis. An important A.L.S., Freud, two pages, large 4to, Vienna, 9^th October 1932, to a colleague in America, in German. Freud commences his letter by stating, 'I would like to assume that you are a friend of the psychoanalytic movement. We seem to have very different opinions about the ways and means of serving her. You find Stern and Alexander's draft for the announcement of the new psychoanalytic institute too harshly polemical; I found it timid and unsatisfactory' and continues to defend his viewpoint, 'For more than a generation I have struggled with opposition to psychoanalysis, both within and outside of academia. I think I can judge this correctly. You must understand this and prepare yourself to stand up for it. This fight cannot be appeased without a full overview of the programme and content of the analysis. If one thinks one has won friends through such diplomatic insincerity, then there are only two options: either you learn what the analysis wants and you turn into enemies, or you dare not to do what the analysis dictates, out of respect for these precarious friends, and then you do not deserve the name of a psychoanalyst', further explaining 'Psychoanalysis and opportunism are not compatible. In analysis one seeks to uncover a piece of the truth veiled by conventions. The first truth to face is that a large part of humanity rejects these theories and this resistance cannot be reduced. If the universities want nothing to do with analysis, then analysis must develop independently of the universities. She can await her official recognition with a light heart. In Europe it is currently well on the way. I fear that excessive reverence for the prejudices of the crowd will remain a serious enemy of scientific progress in America for a long time to come'. A letter of excellent content in which Freud demonstrates his struggles for the recognition of psychoanalysis, and also provides his views on psychoanalysis in America, whilst also bringing into play some fundamental questions: doctrinal intransigence against wide dissemination, Europe versus the United States, and revolutionary force against conservatism. Some light age wear and a few minor, neat splits at the folds, only very slightly affecting a few words of text. About VG

In the present letter Freud makes reference to William Stern (1871-1938) German psychologist and philosopher, known for the development of personalistic psychology, and Franz Alexander (1891-1964) Hungarian-American psychoanalyst and physician, considered one of the founders of psychosomatic medicine and psychoanalytic criminology. In 1930 Alexander had been invited to be the Visiting Professor of Psychoanalysis at the University of Chicago and in October 1932 founded the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute (the second oldest such institute in America, preceded by New York five months earlier), becoming its first Director.