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.
The reaction of leading psychoanalysts to the writings of Georg Groddeckis characterized by high esteem and almost by admiration. At the same time however a note of caution and defensive resistance is clearly expressed. Most of Groddeck's publications and translations are carefully labeled with editorial warnings and short solemn introductory notes. For instance, L.Pierce Clark's preface to the English edition of “The Book of the It” (bibliography No. 10) seems to be almost an apology for introducing Georg Groddeck to the American public. He states that some of the “uniqueness” of this book has been lost since Freud's “the Future of an Illusion” and he continues: “If the author becomes at times unduly dramatic in his epistolary dialogues, one must easily forgive him, for the subject matter is not supposed to be an exact scientific presentation but merely a running commentary to enlighten an interested and intelligent layman.” Sigmund Freud acknowledged that Groddeck introduced into psychoanalysis the term and conception of the “Es” (the It) as the original source of all psychic and physical life. In his book “The Ego and the Id” (19) Freud states: “Now I think we shall gain a great deal by following the suggestion of a writer who, from personal motives, vainly insists that he has nothing to do with the rigors of pure science. I am speaking of Georg Groddeck, who is never tired of pointing out that the conduct through life of what we call our ego is essentially passive, and that, as he expresses it, we are” lived “by unknown and uncontrollable forces (G. Groddeck: Das Buch vom Es. Vienna, 1923). We have all had impressions of the same kind, even though they may not have overwhelmed us to the exclusion of all others, and we need feel no hesitation in finding a place for Groddeck's discovery in the fabric of science. I propose to take it into account by calling the entity which starts out from