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Two Views
Russell Jacoby has rediscovered for us a forgotten piece of the history of psychoanalysis: its close links to politically progressive movements in its early stages. At the same time he has introduced to us an unknown side of some major psychoanalytic thinkers with whom we thought we were alrady quite familiar. To those of us who know Edith Jacobson or Otto Fenichel only through their major published works it comes as quite a surprise to learn that they were passionately concerned to integrate Freud with Marx, to provide a socially oriented psychoanalysis that was not merely ameliorative but rather revolutionary.
Our image of Fenichel in particular seems strikingly at odds with his newly rediscovered past. His major work, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis- perhaps the single most generally accepted psychoanalytic textbook—seems the opposite of revolutionary. Fenichel's encyclopedic thoroughness and attention to detail, his cool objective weighing of opposing viewpoints, even the almost Aristotelian terseness of his writing style—all seem more compatible with stodgy conservatism than with any popular image of political radicalism. How could we have been so little acquainted with such a familiar figure?
A good part of Jacoby's book is devoted to answering that question. Jacoby uncovers a wealth of fascinating information such as Fenichel's association with the pre-World War I youth movement and its commitment to sexual and educational reform; as well as the connection between the failure