The Splitting of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and the Construction of Psychoanalytic Authority

The splitting apart of the New York Psychoanalytic Society, which began in 1941 with the expulsion of Karen Horney, is seen in the context of a concerted effort to establish the professional authority of psychoanalysis on unimpeachable foundations. On the one hand, a core group of young psychiatrists trained abroad, led by Kubie, sought to establish strict standards of training along orthodox lines; following in the footsteps of medical reformers who had established the professional authority of medicine with strict standards for training and credentialling, they opposed their more ‘lax’ elders as well as revisionists such as Horney and Rado. On the other hand, the refugee analysts fleeing Hitler sought to establish the security and conditions of orthodoxy they had enjoyed abroad, though they were forced to compromise on the issue of lay analysis. Together they expelled the deviants and sought to establish the professional authority of psychoanalysis on the twin foundations of medical standards and Freudian orthodoxy. Anxieties following the death of Freud contributed to this dynamic process. But contradictions between the conflicting demands of these two sources of authority undermined the stability of this alliance and, eventually, contributed to its collapse.