Do we need to change our image of Freud?: Reflections on Kurt R. Eissler’s interviews in the Freud Archives of the Library of Congress

Abstract

A short survey is given of the digitization of the Freud Archives, focusing on Eissler’s interviews. On the basis of several paradigmatic items the author highlights some characteristics of Freud’s technique as well as his attitude to supervision and his general idea of psychoanalysis that differs from our views.

Key words:

• Freud
• Eissler’s interviews
• Freud’s view of supervision
• Freud’s technique
• Grete Bibring
• Hans Lampl

Archives

Eissler's interviews of Bibring, Bienenfeld, Kris, van der Leeuw and Lampl are part of the Sigmund Freud Papers at the Library of Congress (Washington): https://www.loc.gov/collections/sigmund-freud-papers/.

Notes

1 Lecture presented at the 31st Symposium on the History of Psychoanalysis, Berlin, March 2–4, 2018. In accordance with the character of the lecture, the bibliographical references were kept to a minimum. An earlier version of this paper was published in Luzifer-Amor, Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse, 32, 90–100, 2019.

2 https://www.loc.gov/collections/sigmund-freud-papers/articles-and-essays/brief-history-of-the-collection/; accessed October 5, 2020. A few items were excluded from digitization. In the finding aid they are marked with “digital content not yet available.” Furthermore, there are some items that are ‘closed’: https://findingaids.loc.gov/db/search/xq/searchMfer02.xq?_id=loc.mss.eadmss.ms004017&_faSection=overview&_faSubsection=did&_dmdid=; accessed October 5, 2020. On the history of the Freud Archives, see Fichtner (2009) and Schröter (2009).

3 For example, excerpts from the interview with Hans Lampl (2011), as well as the complete interviews with Wilhelm Reich (1967) and Paul Klemperer (2008).

4 On the question of Freud’s working methods, the following interviews are also interesting: Franz Alexander, Smiley Blanton, Roy Grinker, Alfred Gross, Carl G. Jung, Hellmuth Kaiser, Rudolph Loewenstein, Anna Maastright, Heinrich Meng, Theodor Reik, Joan Riviere, Philipp Sarasin, René Spitz, Clara Thompson, and Robert Waelder.

5 Grete Bibring became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society in 1925, and as of 1934 a member of the training committee. In 1938 she emigrated to London, then to the USA. She became a training analyst in Boston and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University; see Mühlleitner (1992), Bakman (2015), and Nölleke (2007–2020). Eissler’s interview from 1954 can be found at https://www.loc.gov/item/mss3999001439/; accessed October 5, 2020.

6 See, for example, the interviews with Franz Alexander, Leonhard Blumgart, Suzanne Cassirer Bernfeld, David Brunswick, Angelica Bijur Frink, Selma Glanz, Wilhelm Haas, Ferdinand Haller, Clarence Oberndorf, and Philipp Sarasin.

7 Franz Rudolf Bienenfeld was chairman of the Austrian section of the World Jewish Congress and, after his emigration to London, worked in its legal department (Arnborn, 2014). Eissler’s interview from 1953 can be found at https://www.loc.gov/item/mss3999001693/; accessed October 5, 2020.

8 On Kris, see Mühlleitner (1992, pp. 187–189). Eissler’s interview from 1953 can be found at https://www.loc.gov/item/mss3999001506/; accessed October 5, 2020.

9 See, for example, Eissler’s interviews with Franz Alexander, Rudolph Loewenstein, Theodor Reik, and Walter Schmideberg.

10 Cornelis Hendrik (“Cees”) van der Leeuw was the brother of Jacobus Johannes (“Coos”) van der Leeuw, who had been in analysis with Freud and died in a plane crash in 1934. The first name given in the Freud archives is “Charles”, a misreading of C[ornelius] H[endrik]. With his brothers, Cornelius van der Leeuw directed a large company in Holland and came to Vienna to study medicine. He went to Ruth Mack Brunswick for analysis, completed his medical studies in Vienna, and was later a member of the Dutch Psychoanalytical Society.

See https://devrijepsych.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/aantekeningen-over-kees-van-der-leeuw/#_ftn3. Eissler’s interview from 1954 can be found at https://www.loc.gov/item/mss3999001514/; accessed October 5, 2020.

11 Lampl, a friend of Freud’s son Martin, studied medicine and moved to Berlin in 1921, where he worked at the polyclinic and became a member of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Society in 1926. In 1933 he went back to Vienna, and then emigrated with his wife, Jeanne Lampl-de Groot, to Holland in 1938 (see Mühlleitner 1992). Eissler’s interview from 1953 can be found at Hans Lampl (1889–1958), https://www.loc.gov/item/mss3999001510/; accessed October 5, 2020.

12 The fact that Freud was not primarily interested in psychoanalysis as a therapy is emphasized in a surprising number of interviews, which I cannot go into here in detail.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ulrike May

Ulrike May, Dr Phil, is a practicing psychoanalyst in Berlin and a member of the Karl-Abraham-Institute Berlin, the German Psychoanalytic Association, and the International Psychoanalytic Association. She has published three books: Freud frühe klinische Theorie (1894–1896). Wiederentdeckung und Rekonstruktion (1996), (together with Elke Mühlleitner) Edith Jacobson. Sie selbst und die Welt ihrer Objekte (2005), and Freud at work. On the history of psychoanalytic theory and practice, with an analysis of Freud’s patient record books (2018), as well as numerous papers on the history of psychoanalytic theory and practice, the last one about the “conversation” between Freud, Abraham, and Ferenczi on “Mourning and melancholia” (2019). Together with Michael Schröter, in 2015 she presented a critical edition of Freud’s “Beyond the pleasure principle” (1920), including a transcript of its first version (1919) that had been not published before. See her list of publications at [email protected].