Neurosis and Creativity

This is Franz Alexander's last written publication. He died on March 8, 1964. The Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis is deeply appreciative and feels honored that Dr. Sandor Rado spoke of his long friendship with Dr. Alexander and read his Karen Horney Lecture.—Ed.

Mister chairman, ladies and gentlemen: Before reading to you Frans Alexander's paper, I should like to say a few words about Franz Alexander. We were friends, close friends, for over fifty years. This fact may explain the personal tone of what I am going to say.

When I first met Franz we were both students at the medical school of the University of Budapest. This was before World War I. He was then working on problems of the metabolism of the brain. Upon returning from war service, we found ourselves co-residents at the University's psychiatric hospital. Soon, under the influence of a small group of friends, of whom I was one, he decided to seek psychoanalytic training at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, which had just been founded. It was, as you probably know, the first institution offering training in psychoanalysis, and Franz was the first student ever to graduate from it. He remained its most distinguished alumnus.

We met again in the fall of 1922 when I went to Berlin to attend an international psychoanalytic convention. At that convention, Franz received an award from. Professor Freud for a paper he had written as a student. After the convention, Freud remarked to me privately, “You will see—this man will do a good deal for psychoanalysis,” and we can say today that he certainly did.

Franz was a tireless investigator and an easy and prolific wrtier. He published articles and books one after the other. In his first book he used Freud's structural theory to shed light on the case histories of his patients, and Freud's abstract ideas came to life. His next book applied the insights of psychoanalysis to problems of forensic psychiatry. His fame grew and brought him an increasing number o