BOOKS
Freud's Boswell
By EDWARD GLOVER IN the first volume of his trilogy on Freud's life, work and letters, Ernest Jones con:essed that his task was a 'dauntingly stupendous' one. And indeed it seldom falls to the lot of a biographer to write the life of one who has changed the course of human thought and in all probability of human history. It is even more uncommon for the biographer to be equipped for his task by a lengthy experience of psycho- analytical method. For although professional analysts have been willing enough to convert the literary remains of others into case histories illustrating the theories of psycho-analysis, few of them have practised the art of biography. Unfortunately, such restraint has not been copied by less-qualified amateurs in psychological bio- graphy who, mistaking envy for insight, have been more concerned to 'debunk' their subjects than to bring them to life.
To • be sure, a psycno-analytical case history is in itself a kind of biography, having the im- measurable advantage of access to unconscious sources of information : but it is essentially a 'clinical' biography which, judged by artistic and creative standards, has the fatal defect of the classroom diagram. Dr. Jones was no doubt well aware of the danger of substituting an analytical treatise for a biographical essay; nevertheless he had to reckon with the fact that Freud's life history lay for the most part in the evolution of his systems of thought and that, to use Freud's own words, 'the story of my life and the history of psycho-analysis are intimately interwoven. As a lifelong analyst, Jones could scarcely abstain from attempting to correlate Freud's psychic Odyssey with what could be gleaned of his per- sonal history and at the same time with the history of the psycho-analytical movement, em- bellishing the whole with analytical glosses and appraisals remarkable for their restraint. In short, he elected to solve the 'stupendous' problem of a Freud biography by adopting an encyclopaedic approach. In this respect he followed the tech- nique of dream interpretation in which the latent content of the dream can be surmised only after a. free and voluminous expansion of (pre)con- scious associations.
As far as personalia were concerned the task was certainly immense; for after his first ten years in the professional wilderness Freud was surrounded with a Boswellian 'old guard' whose members seem to have vied with each other to preserve intimate memories of him with a piety this side idolatry. No item was too trivial to escape their attention, from the exact position of a childhood scar to the number of cigars he con- sumed daily. Even Dr. Jones, perhaps the least idolatrous of the old guard, has found it difficult at times to distinguish between gossip and gospel, between the trivialities of everyday existence and the significant details relevant to the course of a great man's life. When in doubt he has risked the charge of naiveté by setting down a great deal of parochial detail.
But if, despite the claim that his is no popular biography, Dr. Jones has frequently allowed him- self to stay the whetted appetites of the curious, this cannot be said of his account of Freud's theories of mind. For this particular task Dr. Jones had indeed unique qualifications, a com- pendious erudition, lucidity of thought, clarity of presentation and, keen judgment. The result is a presentation of the development of Freudian theory which can scarcely be bettered and which, had it been given a volume to itself, would have provided the advanced student of psycho-analysis with a supremely good textbook. To do so would, however, have disarranged Dr. Jones's plan of interweaving the life and the work of Freud, and he has preferred to stick to his biographical strategy at the risk of leaving his less orientated readers to struggle periodically with a theoretical presentation that is austere, accurate, but by no means easy to digest.
In The Last Phase* Dr. Jones continues to apply his encyclopaedic approach with unflagging energy. He describes how after the' First World War the scattered members of the International Psycho-analytical Association gathered again and worked with comparative unity until the spell was broken by the defection of Rank. This was to be followed some five years later by the with- drawal of Ferenczi, who was unquestionably the most brilliant, imaginative and erratic of Freud's early followers. The story of these two defections is retailed by Jones with circumstantial detail and not a little gusto. Indeed, a good quarter of the book consists of a chronicle of the development of the psycho-analytical movement and of Freud's reactions to the various phases, advances, lulls and internal dissensions that marked its pro- gress. In so doing he dispose,s effectively of the myth that Freud was a thin-skinned autocrat who could not brook opposition, a myth which in- cidentally was as grotesque yet as tenacious of life as the canard, flushed in a recent unauthor- ised biography, that he was a harsh and domineer- ing husband and father. This part of the narrative will be read also with some zest by those who have reacted with unnecessary in- feriority to yet another myth, namely of the superior virtues and adaptations of analysts and *SIGMUND FREUD: LIFE AND WORK. Vol. III, THE LAST PHASE (1919-1939). By Ernest Jones. (Hogarth Press, 35s.) analysed persons. Jones's detailed recital of the squabbles, envies and jealousies existing in the 'Committee' of stalwarts formed to act aS 3 psychic bodyguard for Freud indicates cicarlY that pioneer analysts at any rate can be as human as anyone else. But already a shadow had fallen across that phase of Freud's life during which he achieved lasting recognition. In the late sixties he Iva5 . stricken with the painful disease from whic" after sixteen years of intense suffering and in' numerable operations he ultimately died. Agei° and again Jones reverts to this theme of sutler. ing endured with fortitude, and indeed does not forbear to give a twenty-five-page transcript of Professor Pichler's surgical diary of the CS' Readers of biographies, he argues, should not ne squeamish about bodily misfortunes, a viegi which, however, he immediately qualities hY saying that the appendix is for medical readers only : in which case, one would have thought' its proper place should have been a medical journal.
And so to the end of the story. Increasing fame laced with increasing tribulation : th! Goethe Prize, Thomas Mann's address, the TOP revolution, the exodus of analysts, the invasion of Vienna and Freud's decision to leave the citY of his early adoption, the journey to London, the publication of Moses and Monotheism and the last unconscionable year of dying—all these are set down with a grave circumstantiality, seasoned with excerpts from Freud's letters which, better than any concerted effort, set in relief the manY and humane aspects of his life and character. , It is almost with relief that one turns to Jones! review of Freud's work during the last)phase', In the ideological sense this was really his secono great period of creative thinking, and Jones doe full justice to the amazing efflorescence of idea,is that characterised his work from his sixty-thiru year onward. Section by section he describes with painstaking accuracy Freud's contributions t° technique and to the theory of the neuroses, hiS conception of a 'Death-Instinct,' and of the Super-ego and Id, his work on biology, anthro' pology, sociology, religion, occultism, art and literature, ending, a little anti-climactically Per- haps, with a brief assessment of his influence nrt psychiatry, psychology, philosophy and crimin' ology. This account is interspersed with Charac' teristic exegetical passages, more particularlY, regarding points on which Jones himself differen from Freud, It would scarcely be fair to judge this trilogY by the usual canons of biography. If one of ill° main motives of the art is to bring the famoe,s dead to life, the author has certainly achieveu his purpose. Out of a mass of material there emerges almost inevitably the lineaments Of, 3 man of-genius, governed by outstanding integrtY of mind yet all the time a human being with his due share of frailties and foibles. Such faults es the biographical critic may discern are due mainly to the fact that this is really a corn pendillin vitae compiled by one uniquely qualified to do so. Dr. Jones has performed this duty with distinc- tion and thereby has added the copestone to his already considerable reputation. He has produced a mine of information from which all future biographers of Freud will draw essential under- standing.
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