You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
A small shock-wave rippled through the psychoanalytic community when, in 1982, Bruno Bettelheim published his book, Freud and Man's Soul, revealing the many basic travesties that had been committed in translating Freud's works from the original German into the standard English version. The community at large tried to minimize the significance of the revelations. While I was deeply impressed by the fact that the deliberate liberties taken by the translator had affected the history of psychoanalysis, I did not realize the full significance of the event until two years later. At that time I was asked to review George Orwell's antiutopian novel, 1984 (1949). That project immediately expanded beyond 1984 to Orwell's previous writings and to Orwell the man, as revealed in the excellent biography by Bernard Crick. I was deeply stirred by Orwell's message, which centers on language. His message was relevant then, is relevant now, will be relevant in the future, and is relevant to the language problems of psychoanalysis, some of which were addressed by Bettelheim in his book.
Language mattered to Orwell not only as an expression of his artistic sensitivity, but as a preserver or destroyer of human values. 1984 demonstrates the power of systematic manipulation of language to make individualized thought or feeling impossible, and thus to achieve a robotization, a dehumanization of men. While Animal Farm and 1984 describe the destructive use of language, many of Orwell's essays plead the cause of protecting the English language as part of an effort to cultivate human values—among them, truth and liberty. He writes: “To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable rules…. Whoever writes English