On the Question of Revision of the Standard Edition of Freud's Writing

The Strachey Standard Edition of Freud's works, published between 1955 and 1967, was then, and still is, a great scientific and literary achievement. The replacement of earlier diverse translations which often misrepresented and distorted Freud's writings, which conflicted with each other and confused the reader, by a uniform edition where the work of translation was shared between a small, highly skilled, knowledgeable team of psychoanalysts who devoted a massive amount of attention to issues of terminology and to the clarification of concepts, was greeted with almost universal praise, admiration and gratitude. It was a great psychoanalytic publication, a considerable financial risk.

Generations of psychoanalysts have been raised on Strachey, have been educated by his great editorial achievements in which he traced the historical development of Freud's concepts and clarified the essence of his constant revisions of his theories in the light of further psychoanalytic experience, theoretical sophistication and in response to criticism of his ideas. Analysts have appreciated the magisterial quality of the writing, appreciated the cool clarity of style of a writer who had been nourished on the European tradition of classical translation. Few then questioned whether Strachey's translation represented as authentic a version of Freud's ideas as possible. The authority of Anna Freud reinforced this almost universal acceptance.

What then has happened since then, especially in the last decade, that Strachey's version has begun seriously to be questioned and challenged? Several factors have to be taken into account. It is inevitable that the achievements of one generation will be challenged by the next. This is healthy and demonstrates the liveliness and evolution of psychoanalytic thought. Nowadays, non-German speaking analysts are learning German so as to be able to read Freud in the original and to obtain their own views of his ideas. They appreciate Freud's master