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Dr Roy Grinker Sr had the distinction of being the only Chicagoan to have been analyzed by Sigmund Freud. According to Dr Roy Grinker's autobiography, his father, Julius, a distinguished neurologist, was interested in psychoanalysis since 1911 when Ernest Jones came to lecture in Chicago. One year later, in 1912, Julius Grinker gave an academic lecture entitled ‘Freud's Psychotherapy’ before the South Side Branch of the Chicago Medical Society and said, ‘This new psychotherapy has as its basis a plausible psychology, splendid reasoning and a profound acquaintance with the depths of human nature’. Julius Grinker ultimately became antagonistic towards psychoanalysis yet, ironically, he staked his son, Roy, to an analysis with the master, although it lasted but one year.
Franklin McLean, Dean of the recently developed University of Chicago Medical School, asked Roy Grinker to establish a Department of Psychiatry, although he was a neurologist. He offered to obtain a Rockefeller Fellowship and a two-year stay in Europe where Grinker wanted to be psychoanalyzed. Franz Alexander recommended that he contact Freud.
Our archives contain several letters written by Freud to Grinker in anticipation of his analysis. Freud's charm and personality, as well as his tolerance, are evident in these brief notes, some of which are reproduced below.
[in English in the original; see pp. 156-7]
Prof. Dr Freud
April 16th 1933
Wien IX, Berggasse 19
Dear Dr Grinker
I expect to have free hours in the fall this year and will be ready to undertake your analysis, provided my health continues as it is now. My fee is $25 an hour but in consideration of my special interest in your case I would agree to a reduction. Yet I cannot give a definite promise until I have got your kind information about three points: 1) what your age is, 2) how much time you intend