This paper begins with an interesting and vivid account of the early years of American psycho-analysis and of the men who laid the foundations for its future growth. Psycho-analysis changed American psychiatry from a predominantly diagnostic system to a therapeutic science. This occurred because of the understanding which psycho-analysis imparted to the clinical phenomena encountered in psychiatric work. The acceptance of the need for personal analysis became in time the keystone of the psycho-analytic movement. The author believes that it was Freud's inherent optimism which appealed to the idealism of American doctors; it was a new way of helping people and building a better world.