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.
This volume, which was recently published in Germany, contains 76 letters written by Freud between 1921-1939 to the Dutch analyst Jeanne Lampl-de Groot (1895-1987). It is an expanded edition of a book published in 2012 in the Netherlands, expertly edited and annotated by the renowned Dutch psychoanalyst and co-editor of the Dutch Psychoanalytic Journal Tijdschrift voor Psychoanalyse, Gertie Bögels. Three decades ago, Bögels requested these Freud letters from the Library of Congress and sought transcription assistance from the Freud scholar Gerhard Fichtner, who also transcribed the 1,500 courtship letters that were exchanged between Freud and his wife-to-be Martha Bernays during their four-year-long engagement.†
Bögels annotated these Freud letters in an immensely helpful way with familial, socio-political, and biographical information about all the persons and events mentioned in them. She prefaces the book with an interesting biographical sketch of Jeanne Lampl-de Groot and offers photographs from Jeanne’s life donated from the personal archive of Jeanne’s daughter Edith. In its final section, Bögels shares excerpts from Jeanne’s letters written to her parents from 1921-1923, during the early phases of her analysis with Freud. Having access to Jeanne’s intelligent and thoughtful voice and her excitement and passion about the evolving science of psychoanalysis compensates the reader in a small way for the absence of Jeanne’s letters to Freud, which were destroyed by Anna Freud soon after Freud’s death. Anna Freud wrote to Jeanne on December 31, 1939: “I looked for all your letters and destroyed them, because I know that this is your wish” (p. 11).†
The main part of the book is entitled: “My dear Jeanne,” which is the address Freud used in almost all his 76 letters to Jeanne Lampl-de Groot. These letters show Freud as a personable, lively, interested, and compassionate writing partner. He conveys a deep sense of respect and caring for Jeanne who is his patient and pup