Do we need to change our image of Freud?: Reflections on Kurt R. Eissler’s interviews in the Freud Archives of the Library of Congress

Ulrike May, Dr Phil, is a practicing psychoanalyst in Berlin and a member of the Karl-Abraham-Institute Berlin, the German Psychoanalytic Association, and the International Psychoanalytic Association. She has published three books: Freud frühe klinische Theorie (1894–1896). Wiederentdeckung und Rekonstruktion (1996), (together with Elke Mühlleitner) Edith Jacobson. Sie selbst und die Welt ihrer Objekte (2005), and Freud at work. On the history of psychoanalytic theory and practice, with an analysis of Freud’s patient record books (2018), as well as numerous papers on the history of psychoanalytic theory and practice, the last one about the “conversation” between Freud, Abraham, and Ferenczi on “Mourning and melancholia” (2019). Together with Michael Schröter, in 2015 she presented a critical edition of Freud’s “Beyond the pleasure principle” (1920), including a transcript of its first version (1919) that had been not published before. See her list of publications at
Correspondence: Ulrike May, Taunusstr. 12, 12161 Berlin, Germany. E-mail: