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I feel honoured to have the privilege of addressing the British Psycho-Analytical Society on the occasion of the Centenary of the birth of Ernest Jones and to have the opportunity to pay tribute to him as the founder of our Society. I did not know him well, but I was Secretary of the International Psycho-Analytical Association when he was still its Honorary President and I had the sad task of informing its Component Societies of his death in February 1958. During the last 18 months of his life, although he was very ill, he was still able to respond with advice and support.
Since that time I have become increasingly immersed in the study of the history of our Society, and through my reading of early minutes and memoranda I have developed a deep respect for what Ernest Jones achieved for our Society and for Psychoanalysis in England and throughout the world. As we hope to devote another evening to a discussion of his scientific contributions, I will do no more than mention them briefly this evening.
After his difficulties with the small self selected London Psycho-Analytical Society, who proved more interested in Jung's theories than those of Freud, Jones was careful to avoid some of the problems that occurred with that group, when he founded the British Psycho-Analytical Society on 20 February, 1919, that is 60 years ago next month. The new Society decided that all new members must be proposed by someone who knew them and nominated by the Council before being balloted for by Members. In fact they were usually asked to attend as a visitor first, and as there was no organized training available, the newly elected Associate Members were often asked to read a paper during the first year of their Associate Membership. It was also agreed that Associate Members should be re-elected annually, which made it possible to drop unsuitable Associates who did not take to psychoanalysis. During the first few years there was therefore quite a turnover of membership on the fringe