Report of the British Medical Association on Psychoanalysis

In the British Medical Journal for June 29, 1929 (Appendix II of the Special Supplement), there appeared the report of the special Committee of the British Medical Association on psychoanalysis. The task of investigation was a long and complicated one, occupying over two years and as a result, the report is quite detailed and elaborate. It is grouped under various headings, which may be abstracted and summarized as follows:

At the annual representative meeting of the British Medical Association, held at Nottingham in 1926, the following motion was proposed by the Sussex Branch: namely, “That the Council be instructed to investigate the subject of psychoanalysis and report on the same.” After some discussion this motion was carried by a majority of votes and, acting on this instruction, the Council in October, 1926, resolved “that a special Committee be appointed to investigate psychoanalysis and report on the same.” The meetings of the Committee extended over a period from March, 1927, to May, 1929. The personnel of the Committee was quite varied, comprising such varied specialties in medicine as internists, psychiatrists, neurologists, surgeons, gynaecologists, obstetricians and psychoanalysts. The latter represented the “Freudian School of Psychoanalysis,” (appointed from the British Psychoanalytical Society) and the “Jungian School of Analytical Psychology” as well as various representatives of general psychotherapy and medical psychology.

The Committee decided that, while giving its chief attention to psychoanalysis, it ought to survey the entire field of psychotherapy. While this task was a vast and complicated one, beset with exceptional difficulties, the investigation had at least one positive result, it enabled the Committee to arrive at a clearer view of what psychoanalysis actually is, i.e., the technique and theories elaborated by Freud and his co-workers and to understand how these differed from other methods of psychotherapy. As stated in t