Evolution of Freudian psychoanalytic thought in the twentieth-century USA: The influence of the European émigrés

Abstract

This paper briefly reviews major theoretical and clinical changes in American psychoanalysis since its beginning in the early twentieth century. The immigration of European analysts in the 1930s and 40s was of major significance. Infant development research promoted a shift towards the importance of object relations, reducing the importance of the Oedipus complex. The increasing focus on narcissism and borderline personalities is discussed, as well as the applications to dynamic psychotherapy. Dogma dissipated with increasing latitude in theory and clinical work within “classical” psychoanalysis.

Key words:

• infancy
• development
• object relations
• conflict
• narcissism
• dogma

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Harold P. Blum

Harold Blum, MD, is a training and supervising analyst of the Psychoanalytic Society of New York, USA, past editor in chief, of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and past vice-president of the International Psychoanalytical Association.

Elsa J. Blum

Elsa Blum, PhD in clinical psychology from Columbia University, is a past senior psychologist at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center and past adjunct assistant professor, St. John’s University, USA.