Report of the Fourteenth International Psycho-Analytical Congress

The Fourteenth International Psycho-Analytical Congress took place at Marienbad from August 2 to August 8, 1936, under the presidency of Dr. Ernest Jones. There were 198 present—111 members and 87 guests. The local arrangements for the Congress were made by a Joint Committee of the Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society and the Czecho-Slovakian Study Group.

The President, Dr. Ernest Jones, opened the Congress on Monday, August 3, at 9 a.m., with the following address:

To-day we are embarking on a novel adventure. This is the first time the International Psycho-Analytical Association has met in a country where there exists no Psycho-Analytical Institute, nor even a Society. We are venturing on to almost virgin soil, though one that promises to be fruitful soil. I say "almost virgin, " since we have for some years been preceded by a few individual analysts. The first, I think, to settle in Prague was the late Dr. Ossipov, who left Russia after the revolution and continued in practice from 1923 until his death a couple of years ago. The first Czech physician to practise psycho-analysis, since 1928, was Dr. Windholz. Then some three years ago, under the leadership of Frau Deri, until she left for America last year, a Study Group was formed, which we affiliated to the Vienna Society. This has been recently strengthened by the accession of one of our most valued members—I refer to Dr. Fenichel.

The reason why I ventured to predict a promising future for psycho-analysis in Czecho-Slovakia is a very simple one. It is because Czecho-Slovakia is one of the few states in Europe where the most necessary condition for the advancement of science still obtains. I refer, of course, to a social culture having among its attributes the priceless one of untrammelled freedom of thought. Continuing its renowned traditions of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Czecho-Slovakia stands like an island of freedom, surrounded by countries whose professors have to