Chapter VI. The Committee

I had been distressed by the three defections narrated in the preceding chapter and foresaw the likelihood of further ones in the future.1 The first two defections (Adler and Stekel) had been unpleasant enough and it was disturbing to hear from Freud in July, 1912, that now his relations with Jung were beginning to be strained. That month, while Freud was in Karlsbad, I was in Vienna and had a talk with Ferenczi about the situation. He remarked, truly enough, that the ideal plan would be for a number of men who had been thoroughly analysed by Freud personally to be stationed in different centres or countries. There seemed to be no prospect of this, however, so I proposed that in the meantime we form a small group of trustworthy analysts as a sort of ‘Old Guard’ round Freud. It would give him the assurance that only a stable body of firm friends could, it would be a comfort in the event of further dissensions, and it should be possible for us to be of practical assistance by replying to criticisms and providing him with necessary literature, illustrations for his work drawn from our own experience, and the like. There would be only one definite obligation undertaken among us: namely, that if anyone wished to depart from any of the fundamental tenets of psycho-analytical theory, e.g. the conception of repression, of the unconscious, of infantile sexuality, etc., he would promise not to do so publicly before first discussing his views with the rest. The whole idea of such a group had of course its prehistory in my mind, stories of Charlemagne's paladins from boyhood, and many secret societies from literature.

Ferenczi heartily concurred in my suggestion and we next put the matter before Otto Rank; I also wrote to Freud about it.2 Rank of course agreed, but in the talk a curious episode occurred which stayed in my mind. Ferenczi, in his usual candid fashion, asked Rank if he thought he would remain loyal to