Freud - Complete Works (483 page)

   Among European countries France
has hitherto shown itself the least disposed to welcome
psycho-analysis, although useful work in French by A. Maeder of
Zurich has provided easy access to its theories. The first
indications of sympathy came from the provinces: Morichau-Beauchant
(Poitiers) was the first Frenchman to adhere publicly to
psycho-analysis. Régis and Hesnard (Bordeaux) have recently
attempted to disperse the prejudices of their countrymen against
the new ideas by an exhaustive presentation, which, however, is not
always understanding and takes special exception to symbolism. In
Paris itself, a conviction still seems to reign (to which Janet
himself gave eloquent expression at the Congress in London in 1913)
that everything good in psycho-analysis is a repetition of
Janet’s views with insignificant modifications, and that
everything else in it is bad. At this Congress itself, indeed,
Janet had to submit to a number of corrections by Ernest Jones, who
was able to point out to him his insufficient knowledge of the
subject. Even though we deny his claims, however, we cannot forget
the value of his work on the psychology of the neuroses.

  
¹
The publications of both authors have
appeared in collected volumes: Brill, 1912, and Ernest Jones,
1913.

On The History Of The Psycho-Analytic Movement

2899

   In Italy, after several promising
starts, no real interest was forthcoming. To Holland analysis found
early access through personal connections: Van Emden, Van
Ophuijsen, Van Renterghem (
Freud en zijn School
) and the two
Stärckes are actively occupied with it both in practice and
theory.¹ In scientific circles in England interest in analysis
has developed very slowly, but there is reason to expect that the
sense for the practical and the passionate love of justice in the
English will ensure it a brilliant future there.

   In Sweden, P. Bjerre, who
succeeded to Wetterstrand’s practice, gave up hypnotic
suggestion, at least for the time, in favour of analytic treatment.
R. Vogt (Christiania) had already shown an appreciation of
psycho-analysis in his
Psykiatriens grundtraek
, published in
1907; so that the first text-book of psychiatry to refer to
psycho-analysis was written in Norwegian. In Russia,
psycho-analysis has become generally known and has spread widely;
almost all my writings, as well as those of other adherents of
analysis, have been translated into Russian. But a really
penetrating comprehension of analytic theories has not yet been
evinced in Russia; so that the contributions of Russian physicians
are at present not very notable. The only trained analyst there is
M. Wulff who practises in Odessa. It is principally due to L.
Jekels that psycho-analysis has been introduced to Polish
scientific and literary circles. Hungary, so near geographically to
Austria, and so far from it scientifically, has produced only one
collaborator, S. Ferenczi, but one that indeed outweighs a whole
society.²

  
¹
The first
official
recognition of
dream-interpretation and psycho-analysis in Europe was extended to
them by the psychiatrist Jelgersma, Rector of the University of
Leyden, in his rectorial address on February 9, 1914.

  
²
(
Footnote added
1923:) It is not my
intention, of course, to bring this account, written in 1914,
‘up to date’ [in English in the original]. I will only
add a few remarks to indicate how the picture has altered in the
interval, which includes the World War. In Germany a gradual
infiltration of analytic theories into clinical psychiatry is
taking place, though this is not always admitted. The French
translations of my works that have been appearing during the last
few years have finally aroused a keen interest in psycho-analysis
even in France, though for the moment this is more active in
literary circles than in scientific ones. In Italy M. Levi
Bianchini (of Nocera Superiore) and Edoardo Weiss (of Trieste) have
come forward as translators and champions of psycho-analysis (cf.
the
Biblioteca Psicoanalitica Italiana
). A collected edition
of my works which is appearing in Madrid (translated by Lopez
Ballesteros) is evidence of the lively interest taken in it in
Spanish-speaking countries (Prof. H. Delgado in Lima). As regards
England, the prophecy which I have made above seems to be in steady
course of fulfilment; a special centre for the study of analysis
has been formed at Calcutta in British India. In North America it
is still true that the depth of understanding of analysis does not
keep pace with its popularity. In Russia, since the Revolution,
psycho-analytic work has begun afresh at several centres. In Poland
the
Polska Bibljoteka Psychoanalytyczna
is now appearing. In
Hungary a brilliant analytic school is flourishing under the
leadership of Ferenczi. (Cf. the Festschrift issued in honour of
his fiftieth birthday.) At the present time the Scandinavian
countries are still the least receptive.

On The History Of The Psycho-Analytic Movement

2900

   As regards the position of
psycho-analysis in Germany, it can only be said that it forms the
centre-point of scientific discussions and provokes the most
emphatic expressions of disagreement both among doctors and laymen;
these are not yet at an end, but are constantly flaring up again,
sometimes with greater intensity. No official educational bodies
there have up to now recognized psycho-analysis. Successful
practitioners who employ it are few; only a few institutions, such
as Binswanger’s in Kreuzlingen (on Swiss soil) and
Marcinowski’s in Holstein, have opened their doors to it. One
of the most prominent representatives of analysis, Karl Abraham, at
one time an assistant of Bleuler’s, maintains himself in the
critical atmosphere of Berlin. One might wonder that this state of
things should have continued unaltered for several years if one did
not know that the account I have given only represents external
appearances. Too much significance should not be attributed to
rejection by the official representatives of science and heads of
institutions, and by the followers dependent on them. It is natural
that its opponents should give loud expression to their views,
while its intimidated adherents keep silence. Some of the latter,
whose first contributions to analysis raised favourable
expectations, have later withdrawn from the movement under the
pressure of circumstances. The movement itself advances surely
though silently; it is constantly gaining new adherents among
psychiatrists and laymen, it brings in a growing stream of new
readers for psycho-analytic literature and for that very reason
drives its opponents to ever more violent defensive efforts. At
least a dozen times in recent years, in reports of the proceedings
of certain congresses and scientific bodies or in reviews of
certain publications, I have read that now psycho-analysis is dead,
defeated and disposed of once and for all. The best answer to all
this would be in the terms of Mark Twain’s telegram to the
newspaper which had falsely published news of his death:
‘Report of my death greatly exaggerated.’ After each of
these obituaries psycho-analysis regularly gained new adherents and
co-workers or acquired new channels of publicity. After all, being
declared dead was an advance on being buried in silence.

On The History Of The Psycho-Analytic Movement

2901

   Hand in hand with this expansion
of psycho-analysis in space went an expansion in content; it
extended from the field of the neuroses and psychiatry to other
fields of knowledge. I shall not treat this aspect of the
development of our discipline in much detail, since this has been
done with great success by Rank and Sachs in a volume (one of
Löwenfeld’s
Grenzfragen
) which deals exhaustively
with precisely this side of analytic research. Moreover, this
development is still in its infancy; it has been little worked at,
consists mostly of tentative beginnings and in part of no more than
plans. No reasonable person will see any grounds for reproach in
this. An enormous mass of work confronts a small number of workers,
most of whom have their main occupation elsewhere and can bring
only the qualifications of an amateur to bear on the technical
problems of these unfamiliar fields of science. These workers, who
derive from psycho-analysis, make no secret of their
amateurishness. Their aim is merely to act as sign-posts and
stop-gaps for the specialists, and to put the analytic technique
and principles at their disposal against a time when they in turn
shall take up the work. That the results achieved are nevertheless
not inconsiderable is due partly to the fruitfulness of the
analytic method, and partly to the circumstance that there are
already a few investigators who are not doctors, and have taken up
the application of psycho-analysis to the mental sciences as their
profession in life.

   Most of these applications of
analysis naturally go back to a hint in my earliest analytic
writings. The analytic examination of neurotic people and the
neurotic symptoms of normal people necessitated the assumption of
psychological conditions which could not possibly be limited to the
field in which they had been discovered. In this way analysis not
only provided us with the explanation of pathological phenomena,
but revealed their connection with normal mental life and disclosed
unsuspected relationships between psychiatry and the most various
other sciences dealing with activities of the mind. Certain typical
dreams, for instance, yielded an explanation of some myths and
fairy-tales. Riklin and Abraham followed this hint and initiated
the researches into myths which have found their completion, in a
manner complying with even expert standards, in Rank’s works
on mythology. Further investigation into dream-symbolism led to the
heart of the problems of mythology, folklore (Jones and Storfer)
and the abstractions of religion. A deep impression was made on all
hearers at one of the psycho-analytical Congresses when a follower
of Jung’s demonstrated the correspondence between
schizophrenic phantasies and the cosmogonies of primitive times and
races. Mythological material later received further elaboration
(which, though open to criticism, was none the less very
interesting) at the hands of Jung, in works attempting to correlate
the neuroses with religious and mythological phantasies.

On The History Of The Psycho-Analytic Movement

2902

   Another path led from the
investigation of dreams to the analysis of works of imagination and
ultimately to the analysis of their creators - writers and artists
themselves. At an early stage it was discovered that dreams
invented by writers will often yield to analysis in the same way as
genuine ones. (Cf. ‘Gradiva’.) The conception of
unconscious mental activity made it possible to form a preliminary
idea of the nature of imaginative creative writing; and the
realization, gained in the study of neurotics, of the part played
by the instinctual impulses enabled us to perceive the sources of
artistic production and confronted us with two problems: how the
artist reacts to this instigation and what means he employs to
disguise his reactions.¹ Most analysts with general interests
have contributed something to the solution of these problems, which
are the most fascinating among the applications of psycho-analysis.
Naturally, opposition was not lacking in this direction either on
the part of people who knew nothing of analysis; it took the same
form as it did in the original field of psycho-analytic research -
the same misconceptions and vehement rejections. It was only to be
expected from the beginning that, whatever the regions into which
psycho-analysis might penetrate, it would inevitably experience the
same struggles with those already in possession of the field. These
attempted invasions, however, have not yet stirred up the attention
in some quarters which awaits them in the future. Among the
strictly scientific applications of analysis to literature,
Rank’s exhaustive work on the theme of incest easily takes
the first place. Its subject is bound to arouse the greatest
unpopularity. Up to the present, little work based on
psycho-analysis has been done in the sciences of language and
history. I myself ventured the first approach to the problems of
the psychology of religion by drawing a parallel between religious
ritual and the ceremonials of neurotics (1907
b
). Dr.
Pfister, a pastor in Zurich, has traced back the origin of
religious fanaticism to perverse eroticism in his book on the piety
of Count von Zinzendorf, as well as in other contributions. In the
latest works of the Zurich school, however, we find analysis
permeated with religious ideas rather than the opposite outcome
that had been in view.

  
¹
Cf. Rank’s
Die Künstler
[
The Artist
], analyses of imaginative writers by Sadger,
Reik, and others, my own small work on a childhood memory of
Leonardo da Vinci’s, and Abraham’s analysis of
Segantini.

On The History Of The Psycho-Analytic Movement

2903

   In the four essays with the title
Totem and Taboo
I have made an attempt to deal with the
problems of social anthropology in the light of analysis; this line
of investigation leads direct to the origins of the most important
institutions of our civilization, of the structure of the state, of
morality and religion, and, moreover, of the prohibition against
incest and of conscience. It is no doubt too early to decide how
far the conclusions thus reached will be able to withstand
criticism.