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The history of a science does not begin to be written until it has undergone considerable evolution. Psychoanalysis has advanced to the point where we witness an increasing interest in its history. The first account of the development of psychoanalysis came from its founder, Freud himself. Under the impact of the controversies with Adler and Jung and the need to clear up the confusion which those dissensions created, Freud wrote “On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement” in 1914. Ten years later, in “An Autobiographical Study,” Freud gave a more dispassionate account of the evolution of his scientific discoveries up to that moment. In a 1935 Postscript to this essay, Freud described the further expansion of psychoanalysis in the intervening decade.
The next milestone in the story of psychoanalysis was Ernest Jones’ monumental three-volume biography of Freud, which appeared between 1953 and 1957. It not only gave a comprehensive account of Freud's life, work and of his time, but also dealt with the men and women who joined Freud in the early days and contributed to the development of the psychoanalytic movement.
What sort of people joined Freud in the pioneering days and, with their energy and dedication, helped develop and spread psychoanalysis? They must surely have been a remarkable, highly gifted group of individuals with varied talents, interests and background. Yet to the growing body of third and fourth generation analysts and to the educated public generally, most of them have been shadowy figures and some mere names. Biographical information about these men and women is scanty, fragmentary, and scattered, and for some, it has no recorded form. There was an obvious need to capture for the