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ABSTRACT
This article is an examination of the history of Strachey’s work as the editor of the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, work that was shaped by the internal strife within British psychoanalysis and the great international conflict of the Second World War. From the primary sources it has been possible to give an account of how he came to be in charge of the Journal, why he was suited to the role, and also to provide an example of what he was like as an editor dealing with colleague-contributors. It is argued that due to his long-held belief in free speech and candour, and because he was committed to resisting to the utmost a split within the British Psycho-Analytical Society, James Strachey wanted to make both the papers and the ensuing discussions of the Controversies public through the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. As described here, that did not happen in a simple way but he succeeded in publishing papers directly related to the debate by fostering investigation into the subject of internal objects. He also gave space in the Journal to new writers and a plurality of theories, including the nascent object relations theories of D.W. Winnicott and John Bowlby.
L'auteur de cet article étudie l'histoire du travail de Strachey comme rédacteur de l'International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, travail qui a été modelé par les luttes intestines au sein du mouvement psychanalytique britannique et l'immense conflit international de la Seconde guerre mondiale. Grâce aux sources primaires, il a été possible de rendre compte de la façon dont James Strachey est devenu responsable du Journal et de comprendre pourquoi il était fait pour ce rôle, possible également de donner un exemple illustrant sa façon d'être comme rédacteur dans sa relation à ses collègues-contributeurs. L'auteur soutient qu'en raison de sa croyance profonde en la liberté d'expression et sa sincérité, comme de son engagement à faire tout son possible pour résister à une scission au sein de la Société britannique de psychanalyse, James Strachey voulait rendre public les articles et les discussions relatifs aux Controverses via l'International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. Comme l'auteur le décrit ici, cela n'a pas été une tâche facile, mais Strachey a réussi à publier des articles au sujet de ce débat, en encourageant la recherche sur les objets internes. Il a également donné la parole au sein du Journal à de nouveaux auteurs et ouvert un espace à une pluralité de théories, y compris les théories naissantes des relations d'objets inaugurées par D.W. Winnicott et John Bowlby.
Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Geschichte von Stracheys Wirken als Herausgeber des International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. Diese Arbeit stand im Zeichen der internen Auseinandersetzungen der britischen Psychoanalyse und des gewaltigen internationalen Konflikts des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Die Originalquellen ermöglichen es, nachzuvollziehen, wie Strachey zum Verantwortlichen des Journals wurde und weshalb er für diese Aufgabe geeignet war. Sie illustrieren auch, wie er den Kolleginnen und Kollegen, die Beiträge verfassten, als Herausgeber begegnete. Es wird die These vertreten, dass James Strachey aufgrund seiner langgehegten Überzeugung vom Wert der Meinungsfreiheit und Offenheit, aber auch dank seiner Entschlossenheit, alles zu tun, um eine Spaltung der British Psycho-Analytical Society zu verhindern, sowohl die Beiträge als auch die daran anknüpfenden Kontroversen Diskussionen mit Hilfe des International Journal of Psycho-Analysis öffentlich machen wollte. Dies war, wie hier erläutert wird, auf einfachem Wege nicht möglich. Es gelang ihm aber, Beiträge zu veröffentlichen, die direkt mit der Debatte zusammenhingen, indem er sich für die Untersuchung des Themas Innere Objekte stark machte. Außerdem ließ er im Journal neue Autoren zu Wort kommen, die für einen theoretischen Pluralismus standen. Dazu zählen auch die aufkommenden Objektbeziehungstheorien D. W. Winnicotts und John Bowlbys.
Il presente lavoro esamina il lavoro svolto da James Strachey per alcuni anni in veste di Direttore Responsabile dell’ International Journal of Psycho-Analysis: un’attività che ebbe per sfondo le scissioni interne al mondo della psicoanalisi britannica e il grande conflitto internazionale della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Lo studio delle fonti primarie ha reso possibile stabilire le vicissitudini che portarono Strachey a trovarsi al timone della rivista e i motivi per cui egli era adatto a questo ruolo. Verrà anche riportato un esempio di come poteva essere, per i colleghi che scrivevano per la rivista, avere a che fare con lui in quanto direttore. L’articolo procede poi a considerare come Strachey, per la sua inveterata fede nella libertà di parola e nella sincerità e altresì per il suo personale impegno a impedire a ogni costo una frattura all’interno della British Society, volesse rendere pubblici proprio tramite l’International Journal sia gli interventi sia i dibattiti ad essi relativi pronunciati nel corso delle “Discussioni controverse.” Come si vedrà, questo suo proposito non ebbe facile attuazione, anche se Strachey riuscì comunque a pubblicare lavori strettamente pertinenti al dibattito incoraggiando ricerche sul tema specifico degli oggetti interni. Oltre a ciò, Strachey diede spazio sulla rivista a nuovi autori e a una pluralità di teorie, tra cui quelle (allora nascenti) delle relazioni oggettuali di D.W. Winnicott e John Bowlby.
El presente artículo es un examen de la historia sobre el trabajo de Strachey como director de la revista International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, trabajo marcado por las pugnas internas dentro del psicoanálisis británico y el gran conflicto internacional de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. A partir de fuentes primarias, se da cuenta de cómo llegó a estar a cargo del Journal, por qué era la persona adecuada para cumplir esa función, y también se brindan ejemplos de cómo era en su trato como director con sus colaboradores colegas. Se sostiene que debido a su arraigada creencia en la libertad de expresión y en decir las cosas como son, y a estar comprometido a resistir al máximo una escisión dentro de la Sociedad Psicoanalítica Británica, Strachey deseaba que tanto los artículos como los debates consiguientes de las controversias fueran hechos públicos a través del International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. Como se describe aquí, esto no sucedió de manera sencilla, pero sí logró publicar artículos relacionados directamente con el debate al promover la investigación sobre el tema de los objetos internos. También dio espacio en el Journal a nuevos escritores y a una pluralidad de teorías, entre ellas las nacientes teorías de las relaciones objetales de D. W. Winnicott y John Bowlby.
Notes
1 The word “survived” is deliberate: documents from the editorial work of the Journal in its early decades are scarce in the ABPS, though the publishers’ accounts and letters (S-C-03-01 and 02) are better represented.
2 Interesting items about the Journal’s history appear within the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis: in Glover’s mildly satirical recollections “In Praise of Ourselves” (Citation1969), and from then the internal references multiply, including a surprising letter regarding Ferenczi’s role instigating the Journal written by Falzeder and Dupont (Citation2000).
3 The word psycho-analysis was always hyphenated at the time, though by the end of the Standard Edition work Strachey wished it were not (see SE vol. I, p. xviii, fn2).
4 ABPS S-C-0-2-A-07.
5 ABPS S-A-03-A, Society minutes Book 15/6/1939.
6 ABPS S-C-0-2-A-07.
7 Compulsory registration for women aged 20–30 was introduced in the Second National Services Act in December 1941.
8 His interests included classical music, opera, theatre and ballet: as Winnicott wrote in the official obituary, “Strachey had grown up … in this third area, the area of cultural experience” (Winnicott Citation1969, 130). He also enjoyed crossword puzzles and reading detective novels (Meisel and Kendrick Citation1986, 219–220; BL AddMS 60688 to Noel Olivier, August 1935).
9 However, after 1939, either as editor or for further translation work, Riviere as a Kleinian was a less likely choice since Anna Freud was in London and closely involved in her father’s copyrights.
10 BL AddMS 60706–60712 correspondence of James and Lytton Strachey.
11 BL AddMS 60708 to L Strachey 19/4/1910.
12 BL AddMS 60710 to L Strachey 11/8/1915.
13 ABPS S-A-04, Institute board minutes 6/12/1939.
14 WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91.
15 The crisis being the invasion of Poland and declaration of war by France and Britain.
16 Alix and James Strachey experienced the problems of getting Klein’s abundance of theories, ideas and examples into English in 1924, when Alix worked with her on six lectures given to the British Society that summer. Alix Strachey wrote about Klein’s impulse to rewrite and expand: “as soon as she begins rewriting it fresh efflorescences will blossom out from every nook and cranny” (Meisel and Kendrick Citation1986, 267).
17 WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91 to Jones 29/11/1939.
18 WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91 to Strachey 20/11/1939.
19 WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91 Typescript p. 1A. Grosskurth made a connection to traits of the men in Klein’s own life: “quite clearly she had Emmanuel, Arthur and Koetzel in mind” (Grosskurth Citation1986, 236).
20 The French radical theatre La Compagnie des Quinze performed the play at the Globe Theatre. Klein’s copy of the programme is in WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91. Obey wrote three versions of Don Juan; apparently only the final one, The Man of Ashes, exists, whereas Klein saw a Don Juan performed, probably, in 1934.
21 WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91 letter from Strachey 15/11/1939.
22 WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91 Typescript p. 16.
23 WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91 letter from Strachey 15/11/1939.
24 WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91 letters from Strachey 15/2/1940 and Brierley 17/1/1940.
25 WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91 from Riviere 2/4/1940 and 8/4/1940.
26 WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91 from Strachey 13/4/1940. As a guide, a minimum of £500 now (https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/).
27 WLA Klein PP-KLE-C.91 from Riviere 8/4/1940.
28 See Paskauskas Citation1993, 637–638 regarding Freud and Jones’s failed attempts to get Strachey to translate The Future of an Illusion. He did translate the relatively short but important “Constructions in Analysis” for the Journal in 1938. It is clear that between 1927 and the outbreak of war, Alix Strachey was doing more work as a translator than her husband was, translating Abraham (with Douglas Bryan), Klein and Sigmund Freud.
29 An Outline is the paper most sought after from the Journals of 1939–45 via the PEP search.
30 ABPS P17-F-A-01 from Jones 9/3/1940 with Strachey’s dated addition 22/3/40.
31 The Stracheys were precise in recording either single or shared credits and therefore it seems Alix Strachey had not translated any Freud during this period.
32 Alix Strachey also reviewed German and English books in the 1940–42 Journals (unless the abbreviation of “A.S.” used indicated Adrian Stephen, which seems less likely) and probably assisted with editing and proof-reading.
33 Talk by John Forrester on Bloomsbury and Psychoanalysis at the Freud Museum, 8 November 2013 (https://thefreudmuseum.podbean.com/e/freud-in-bloomsbury/).
34 The Gesammelte Werke project was being worked on in London from 1940.
35 Perhaps the most interesting example is in the ABPS, reference P04-C-E-14, when Strachey wrote to Jones in 1922 about a translation for besetzung, explaining his rationale for cathexis and seeking the latter’s approval for its introduction.
36 Preparation for a period of famine or other forms of scarcity.
37 The Journal’s subscription revenues must have fallen due to poor communications and exchange rates.
38 Hardback reference books were expensive then compared with now. For example, publishers often asked for the return of review copies and a copy of Moses and Monotheism in 1939 might now cost the equivalent of £108.10, using the multiple of average income calculation (https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/).
39 How the Discussions were entitled varies. I have tried to stick to Discussions of Scientific Differences for the presentations made by Isaacs, Heimann and Klein and the responses to these, and to use the word Controversies in a broader sense to include all topics in contention, e.g. also organizational reform and leadership problems.
40 ABPS P17-F-D-01 from Strachey 12/2/1943.
41 The complete text of King and Steiner Citation1991 is available on PEP (www.pep-web.org). Informative shorter accounts include Hayman Citation1994; King Citation1994; and Robinson Citation2011.
42 His resistance to schism is shown in a letter in which he also likened himself to Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet and inveighed against “(bloody foreigners)” (King and Steiner Citation1991, 32–33).
43 Letter to Rupert Brooke 5/1/1909 (Hale Citation1998, 54); A. Stephen diary 4/7/1909 (MacGibbon Citation1997, 65); subscription receipt for the Union of Democratic Control and letter from Harold Wright of the National Council Against Conscription to Strachey 25/3/1916, both in the Strachey Trust Private Papers.
44 The transcript of Isaacs’ presentations published in King and Steiner Citation1991 differs substantially from Isaacs’ “The Nature and Function of Phantasy” (Citation1948).
45 ABPS S-C-02-A-07 to Jones 9/8/Citation1941. In the letter, Payne was protesting at problems around a book on analytic technique in which Glover included criticisms of Klein’s work, to which Klein had objected. The book contributed to anxiety within the Society.
46 ABPS P43/C/A/18, in a letter to Michael Balint of October Citation1943 referred to below, Strachey also wrote that he was thinking of running his own Training Committee presentation (in “slightly castrated form”) in the Journal, so his impulse to publish candidly was continuing.
47 Again, see Steiner Citation1994 and Citation2011 for the history of the Journal under Jones’s direction.
48 Chosen to represent the Anna Freudian, non-aligned (or British Freudian or Middle Group—Rickman was no longer counted as part of Klein’s group) and the Kleinians within the Society, which underlines the point made here that the editorship carried political power.
49 For example BL AddMS 60710 11/8/1915, a description written to Lytton of how C.L. Graves and he had delayed printing, worked late and so got news of the fall of Warsaw into The Spectator.
50 My thanks to Riccardo Steiner for letting me read the English version of his new paper which is a further examination of the work of British Analysts on war and social conflict in the war and inter-war years: “Zu den ersten Versuchen Britischer Psychoanalytiker, die gesellschaftspolitischen Probleme ihrer Zeit zu analysieren”, Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse, 2019.
51 Before the Controversies, Strachey had been on good terms with both Anna Freud, who had helped generously when Alix Strachey was gravely ill in Vienna in 1922, and with Klein, whom Alix had met in Berlin in 1924 and whose 1925 lectures in London he had proposed and assisted.
52 Multiple factors may have influenced her absence from the Journal: work at the Hampstead Nurseries, her own losses, the stage she was at theoretically, her preferred form of publishing etc. However, as the subject here is the Journal, the criticisms of Anna Freud’s 1927 Introduction to the Technique of Child Analysis that Jones had published in the Journal should not be ignored.
53 ABPS P17-C-C-01 and 02. Rosnick (Citation2017) also includes the text of Strachey’s Opening Remarks at a Practical Seminary.
54 ABPS P17-C-C-01 Notes numbered page 3, written on the reverse of a page proof of “The Psychology of Sexual Abstinence” therefore dated 1943 or later. Adler, Jung and Rank are also on his list of post-Freudian theorists, which gives another indication of Strachey’s pluralism (Klein was also included).
55 For a short biography, see https://www.psychoanalytikerinnen.de-usa_biografien.html#Forest. Also Brennan, BW. “Ferenczi’s Forgotten Messenger, the Life & Work of Izette de Forest,” American Imago 66, 427–455.
56 Alice Balint’s Citation1943 paper “Identification” also says something of Ferenczi’s methods.
57 For a short biography, see https://www.psychoanalytikerinnen.de/.
58 Lay analysts in particular had few alternative periodicals in which they could publish theoretical papers.
59 Another gap is the lack of information on how the Journal’s content was approved post-Jones: did Strachey need to give a list of the proposed contents to the Publishing Committee?
60 ABPS P43-C-A-18 to Michael Balint 19/10/1943. Alice Balint’s A Gyermekszoba Pszichologiája had been published in Budapest in 1931.
61 Matte-Blanco had Strachey as one of his control analysts.
62 Without more evidence it is impossible to say if Milner’s choice of Sprott was a coincidence.
63 Winnicott was in analysis with Strachey for 10 years.
64 Adam Phillips noted that the observational part of that paper was presented in what he finds a “freer” form in 1936 as “Appetite and Emotional Disorder” to the British Psychological Society. His observation that the 1941 text is more organized suggests a possibility that Strachey had edited the paper (Phillips Citation1988, 72–74).
65 There is textual evidence that the paper was adapted for the Jones Heft. Jones’s work is only referred to in footnotes 1 and 2, whereas the closing paragraph (p. 245) refers to “our comparative study” of two works by Abraham and Klein, to which Brierley’s text may originally have been an introduction.
66 Brierley wrote many abstracts and book reviews and remained an assistant editor of the Journal until 1978.
67 Throughout this paper she changed from “internalized objects” to referring to internal objects.
68 Possibly there were a few instances of furthering confusion as well.
69 The term Middle Way-ers is used to indicate those few individuals who took actions intended to support dialogue and compromise. Strictly speaking, the Independent stream of the British Psycho-analytical Society dates to a later period (Robinson in Lowenberg and Thompson Citation2011, 217).
70 ABPS S-A-04-01 Institute board minutes of 7/1/1946 and 27/5/1946.
71 ABPS P17-C-C-01 Strachey notes B beginning with “voyeur.”
72 The ventilation metaphor is Strachey’s. In ABPS P-17-C-C-02 Opening Remarks Typescript p. 25 fn, he had written that the safeguard both against inefficient therapy and false theorizing from what takes place during therapy “is thorough and constant ventilation of the transference itself.”