Philanthropic Boosters of American Psychoanalysis: Episodes of Two Coteries

The American Psychoanalytic Association was founded in 1911. After the Anschlüss in 1938, it sponsored a Foundation to support refugee applicants fleeing Nazi Europe with grants, loans or stipends. A Bulletin of Information to be Supplied Only to Psychoanalysts Who Desire to Emigrate to the U.S.A. was disseminated by Bertram D. Lewin, M.D. (Umansky, 2022, pp. 1 & 4-5). Explicit mention his M.D. is cited since such graduate status emerged as an historically key prerequisite, over most of the Twentieth century, governing the practice of psychoanalysis in America despite Freud's lifelong opposition. It lurked as a divisive factor both upon this side of the Atlantic Ocean and within constituent Societies of the International Psychoanalytic Association. Governmental sanctioning of so-called “layperson psychoanalysts” vis-à-vis medically-educated psychoanalysts has continued to fragment amongst an assortment of rivalrous “psychoanalytically oriented guilds.” Hopefully, further research—- via retrospective historical eras and beyond — may augment your author's limited perspectives.

Riches radiating from two international fortunes, headquartered in 19^th century Europe, ultimately fostered the philanthropic propensities of two female beneficiaries. One was born near fin-de-siècle London; the other in Hanseatic Hamburg at the emergence of the 20^th-century.

Annie Winifred Ellerman [i.e., initially surnamed “Glover”] was the biological daughter of the international shipping magnate Sir John R. Ellerman . Throughout adult life, she chose to identify herself via a solo ‘pen-name,’ to wit: “Bryher.” Robert McAlmon and Kenneth Macpherson became her consecutive husbands. In Philadelphia, the American-born poetess Hilda Doolittle and Ezra Pound were romantic ‘soul-mates’ while she attended Bryn Mawr College and he matriculated as a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. Soon thereafter, both settled in London. She selected “H.D.” as her literary nom de