Federn questions whether psychoanalysis today is still a movement in the sense that it was in Freud's time, or whether it is simply a group of individuals belonging to an international scientific organization. Freud had envisaged a rupture with American analysts. The rupture was itself interrupted by the war and by Freud's death. Federn questions the development of psychoanalysis under American influence. He suggests that analysis in America is a pragmatic product of medical technology, rather than of nineteenth century science. The notion of an analytic movement in the original sense is alien to American analysts. Lacking in America were two important factors which led to the development of the original psychoanalytic movement: persecution and a common sense of purpose. Also lacking was the humanist tradition of the erudite scholar interested in human phenomena. Hence psychoanalysis in America developed as a part of medical science.