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DR. K. R. EISSLER IS THE SECRETARY of the Sigmund Freud Archives, Inc., which has deposited a large collection in the Library of Congress. The 1951 agreement was one which the Library of Congress should not, I think, have undertaken; for they did not anticipate that despite the restrictions on access to others, Dr. Eissler has made copies of material, felt free to send these around (for instance to Ernest Jones), and cited what he chooses in behalf of his effort to idealize Freud. A Joint Committee on Archives, which both the American Historical Association and the Society of Archivists support, is making continuing inquiries into the status of the Sigmund Freud Collection in Washington.
In 1971 Dr. Eissler initiated his assault on my Brother Animal: The Story of Freud and Tausk(1969), and in so doing cited details from an unpublished letter Freud wrote in 1934. Dr. Eissler then put the following footnote: "The letter is contained in the collection of the Sigmund Freud Archives. It is the Archives' policy not to make its collection accessible, for the time being, to the public. The Board of Directors has given me special permission to deviate in this instance from this policy." (Eissler, 1971) Later, after my article (1972) of rebuttal, "Reflections on ethos and authenticity in psychoanalysis, " challenged Dr. Eissler's use of archival material, he wrote in connection with his reliance on that 1934 unpublished letter:
In my quotation from this document, which is contained in the collection of the Sigmund Freud Archives, the same facts that are known from other sources are presented. The Board of the Archives thought, I think rightly, that under these circumstances the exception is not a breach of the general rule that governs the administration of the Archives. This is the only instance where I have made use of a document from the Archives' collection. (Eissler, 1974)
Dr. Eissler does not state why, if "the same facts" were indeed available elsewhere, he chose