Abstract
Objective: The aim of this paper is to describe the circumstances surrounding the only paper published in Australia by Sigmund Freud – his only publication in the Southern Hemisphere – in 1911.
Conclusions: The invitations in 1911 from a Sydney psychoanalysis study group to Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Havelock Ellis to present papers at the Australasian Medical Congress, came at a time when the world was barely aware of Freud’s new psychology, and well in advance of many other countries. Sparring by Freud and Jung over a joint presentation was evident in the respective papers they sent, and they soon parted. A review of other papers presented at the congress indicates that Australian psychiatry, notwithstanding its slow progress, was well informed on recent developments, which was to manifest with biological treatments, as well as with the establishment of psychoanalysis. Despite its distance from Vienna, Australia seemed to have a special place in Freud’s mind that was to surface in various ways over the years, not least in Totem and Taboo.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to all the helpful, tolerant and eternally patient librarians, notably the RACP Medical History Library and, as ever, the staff of the Medical Library, Wollongong Hospital, without whose help this project would have been a non-starter.
This article is dedicated to those Jewish doctors, many of them known to Freud, who came to Australia as refugees but, thanks to xenophobic attitudes among the local medical establishment, were unable to practice as doctors, resulting in wasted lives, notably for those who were world authorities in their field.
Why do I write another article on Freud when, as an historian, I am largely preoccupied with charismatic healers, Reg Ellery and the Prophet Ezekiel? Because, when an old and dying man is forced into exile by the Nazis, he still has the wit to sign off his exit papers with the statement “I can heartily recommend the Nazis to anybody”.
Notes
aBleuler had first announced the name schizophrenia to the world at a conference in 1908. See Kuhn R. Eugen Bleuler’s concepts of psychopathology. History of Psychiatry 2004; 15: 361–366.
bLike so many of Jones’ claims, this was inaccurate; Ellenberger pointed out that Fraser left the ministry with the full support of his community in 1904. See Ellenberger HF. The Discovery of the Unconscious. New York: Basic Books, 1970; page 4.
cAs a coda to the father’s ambitions, his son Donald Archibald Strong Fraser (1902–1967) was a senior psychiatrist with the NSW Department of Health and Medical Superintendent of a number of state mental hospitals.
dAberdeen was later to become the leading Scottish centre for psychoanalysis.
eJones attributed the invitation to Fraser, but this is (again) incorrect.
fDespite extensive inquiries, the whereabouts of the BMA archives of the time remain unknown and it is suspected that they no longer exist. Personal communication: Lee Sands, BMA London, 2009.
gIt is possible Freud was thinking of Frederick JA Davidson, a professor of modern languages in Toronto, a patient of Ernest Jones. See Jones E. Letter from Ernest Jones to Sigmund Freud, August 31, 1911. The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Ernest Jones 1908-1939. 1911; 114–116.
hIt is not possible to know if the papers were merely listed, or read out.
iOr, more likely, sycophantically, as he was prone to do with Freud.
jEllery started working in psychiatry at Kew Gardens in 1922 for lack of any other offer after he graduated from medical school. See RS Ellery. The Cow Jumped Over the Moon. F.W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1956.