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Half a century ago and through the 1920's publication of books in the new field of psychoanalysis was difficult. The workers were few and the reading public was limited, and a large edition entailed more risk than publishers cared to assume. According to Dr. Jacob Shatzky, Librarian of the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Hospital, psychoanalysts who wished to get their ideas publicized in a form other than periodical articles underwrote small editions of books which they grouped under over-all series titles such as Internationale Psychoanalytische Bibliothek and Imago-Bücher. For example, each of the nine books cited among the nearly 140 items in the bibliography of Karl Abraham form a part of one or another of these series.
Even some of Freud's own works first appeared in this form, and as early as 1907 Freud began such a monographic series, with himself as editor: Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde. For the first edition of the opening issue Freud wrote the following “Announcement” which is not found in any other presentation of his writings:
The Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde, the first issue of which herewith makes its appearance, are addressed to that larger circle of educated persons who, without being necessarily either philosophers or medical men, know how to appreciate nevertheless the science of the human mind in its bearing upon the insight into and the enrichment of our life. The papers to be published will not appear in any particular order, but will in each instance present a single study undertaking the application of psychological insights to topics of art and literature, of cultural history and comparative religion, and of analogous fields. These studies will in some cases have