Correspondence

The following letters refer to “The Founding of the Psychoanalytic Institute of the State University of the New York Downstate Medical Center” by Sandor Lorand, Psychoanalytic Review, Vol. 62, No. 4, 1975-76.

March 19, 1976

Board of Editors

The Psychoanalytic Review

150 West 13th Street

New York, N.Y. 10011

The so-called “idle” and “casual” remark of Dr. Potter (never described, let alone quoted, by Dr. Lorand) was obviously neither idle nor casual (given the intensity of the reaction from a significant group within the Institute) and was, obviously, a real and intended insult to the integrity of the members of the newly formed Institute. The entirely justified reaction of the objecting group (including Dr. Eidelberg) resulted in significant improvements in relations between the Institute and the University.

Dr. Lorand's description of what happened in London gives a distorted picture of what really occurred. In April, 1938, Dr. Eidelberg arrived in London (the host city to numerous other members of the profession), having just fled the Nazis in Vienna. In that same month, he also lost his first wife. When confronted with Dr. Ernest Jones' peremptory order that he resettle in Manchester, Dr. Eidelberg flatly refused. After all, isolated Manchester held out very little prospect of a career. It was at that point that Anna Freud interceded and persuaded both Dr. Eidelberg and Dr. Jones that a move to Oxford would be appropriate. Anna Freud's suggestion was accepted by Dr. Eidelberg without reservation and certainly without any feeling of “banishment” as Dr. Lorand asserts. After his arrival in Oxford, Dr. Eidelberg quickly developed a very successful and flourishing practice. His eventual decision to leave Oxford was made regretfully and only because of the threat of internment under British enemy alien laws. Following his arrival in New York, Dr. Eidelberg passed his State Boards, taught at