The Sigmund Freud Archives, with the approval of and in collaboration with the Library of Congress, is organizing a special exhibit in celebration of the 100th anniversaries of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the International Psychoanalytical Association. The exhibit, planned for the June 2010 meetings of APsaA, will provide a select representation of salient historical documents and mementos.
The exhibit will include original Freud correspondence in several languages, in Gothic German, in Spanish, written as an adolescent, and in English to Ernest Jones. Some psychoanalytic concepts, which emerge in a sample of Freud's only surviving process notes, those of the Rat Man's treatment, will be on display. There will be original manuscripts, e.g., “Totem and Taboo” and “The Moses of Michelangelo” with an accompanying sketch of Moses. Freud's personal life is illustrated in items such as a newspaper clipping reporting Freud's remarks on his Jewishness, photos of Freud from age seven to old age, of Freud and Martha Bernays at their engagement, and of the Freud family. Home movies of Freud can be viewed at the Moving Image section of the Library.
“…my short visit to the new world encouraged my self respect in every way. In Europe I felt as though I were despised.”
By special arrangement with the Library of Congress, one-hour tours of the Library will also be available on Friday, June 11, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Advance registration will be necessary through the American Psychoanalytic Association, since each tour will be limited to 60 persons.
The International Psychoanalytic Association was founded in March 1910 at the first International Psychoanalytic Congress in Nuremberg, Germany. Freud was inspired by the reception and recognition of his lectures and theories during his September 1909 visit to Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in conjunction with two Nobel laureates and many other distinguished intellectuals. On this very rare occasion, Freud had tears in his eyes. After his transatlantic international trip Freud expected the new international psychoanalytic association to provide a home base for the fledgling discipline of psychoanalysis, as well as to advance the new science and to establish an official journal. He did not then foresee the problems and clash engendered by his choice of Carl Jung as distinguished, non-Jewish president and editor.
The American Psychoanalytic Association was founded May 1911 with Freud's approval and concern for the future of American psychoanalysis. Originally a group of geographically scattered members, the societies, which had gradually developed in major cities, all became part of the American Psychoanalytic Association in 1932. G. Stanley Hall, who had invited Freud to Clark University, served as the first non-medical president of the American Psychoanalytic Association from May 1917 to May 1919. Hall had founded the American Psychological Association in 1892 and both Hall and A.A. Brill, Freud's first American translator, were eager to apply Freud's groundbreaking insights to American medicine, psychology, and cultural interests.
While Freud quipped that he was bringing America the plague, he later reflected in 1925 “…my short visit to the new world encouraged my self respect in every way. In Europe I felt as though I were despised. But over there,
Harold P. Blum, M.D., is the executive director of the Sigmund Freud Archives and past editor of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
I found myself received by the foremost men in every way… As I stepped onto the platform to deliver my five lectures on psychoanalysis, it seemed like an incredible daydream: psychoanalysis was no longer a product of a delusion, it had become a valuable part of reality.”
Carl Jung had also been invited by Hall to receive an honorary doctorate from Clark University. Freud invited Sandor Ferenczi to accompany him and Jung on their American voyage. Freud outlined his five lectures at the eleventh hour on walks with Ferenczi. The lectures were spoken in German and not read from a prepared manuscript. One lecture was probably timed for delivery when William James was in the audience. Widely covered in the media, the five lectures were an immeasurable impetus to the rise of American interest in psychoanalysis and the travel of pioneer American analysts to Vienna seeking psychoanalysis with Freud. Neither Freud nor his European adherents anticipated the warm reception of psychoanalysis in America, or the enormous growth and development here during its first hundred years.
Nor could Freud have imagined that the Library of Congress would be the repository, custodian, and guardian of the Sigmund Freud Collection, almost entirely donated by Sigmund Freud Archives. The vast Freud Collection encompasses Freud documents, papers, correspondence, journals, photos, movies, other material, some 80,00 items.
The Library of Congress had previously had a major Freud exhibit with the collaboration of the Sigmund Freud Archives. The Freud Exhibit, not without controversy and criticism, opened in 1998, in the elegant great hall of the Library's Jefferson Building. A landmark in the cultural history of psychoanalysis, the exhibit was sent on a national and international tour The Freud exhibit was seen by an estimated 360,000 people with extensive media coverage, an exhibit publication, many relevant articles, and a wide range | of commentaries.