Autobiography of Josef Breuer (1842—1925)

In the library of the Psychiatric Institute at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City is a special unit known as the Freud Library, a collection of books, journals, and pamphlets which were originally a part of the library of Sigmund Freud. There are 812 books in the approximately 1, 200 volumes which were purchased in 1939, shortly after Freud had been forced to leave Vienna.

The bulk of this collection consists of volumes pertaining to psycho-analysis, animal magnetism, hypnotism, early literature on psychiatry, abnormal psychology, and neurology. Some of the books contain marginal notes in Freud's own handwriting; others carry inscriptions and dedications to or by Freud. One item of special interest both to neurologists and psychiatrists is a beautifully bound set of Charcot's collected papers inscribed and autographed by Charcot to his disciple Sigm. Freud, dated 23 January, 1888. Mention should also be made of a group of the earliest editions of the works of Mesmer, as well as an extensive literature on the subject of Mesmerism and books on dreams totalling forty-six items, the earliest of which is dated 1716. The oldest of all books in this collection is a Latin treatise on psychiatry bearing the date 1546.

Some of the earliest writings of Freud published in various journals have so far never been reprinted or translated and therefore are almost inaccessible elsewhere than in this collection. They are of importance for the study of the development of Freud's concepts from which he gradually evolved his theory of psycho-analysis. The travail with which this theory was ultimately born has been vividly related by Freud himself and only recently made known in the publication of the correspondence between Freud and Wilhelm Fliess.

The special Freud library is being extensively used by scholars engaged in research studies on topics pertaining to the thought of Freud and the psycho-analytic movement in general. It may be added that the psychi