Acts and Epistles
SIGMUND FREUD, LIFE AND WORK, VOL. II: YEARS OF MATURITY,
1901-1919. By Ernest Jones. (Hogarth Press, 30s.) IT is probable that Freud would have admired the industry, the literary skill and, above all, the honesty which are evident in this biography; and yet he would have been embarrassed to read it. In his practice he insisted upon his patients discarding their normal reticence, on the grounds that therapy 'can proceed only when one descends to the small details from the abstractions that cover them.
Discretion is thus incompatible with a good presentation of psycho- analysis.' These principles did not, however, apply to his own emotional life, whose privacy he guarded jealously. Even his own children learned details of his early years only when they read the first volume of this work.
The narrative of this second volume has two chief themes : the early vicissitudes of the psychoanalytic movement, and the person- ality of its founder. Once again there is a separate section devoted to an exposition of his successive publications, but the entire text is illuminated by quotations from his letters.
During these two decades Freud's earliest adherents, those who shared with him 'the incomparable delight of the first insight into the new knowledge,' had to suffer abuse and sometimes ostracism.
Psychoanalysis resembled a persecuted sect. Each new discovery and each confirmation by an outsider of their basic hypotheses was acclaimed as a triumph of the Cause—Vie Sache' was the term Freud always used. The movement was sustained in adversity by Freud's strength of character. His letters to his several disciples read like Pauline epistles, exhorting, encouraging and applauding their efforts. He himself rarely entered into controversy, believing that what was sound in his discoveries would ultimately win accept- ance: but he would not tolerate any modification of his views because of the hostility which they might arouse. In many cases the irrational hostility his ideas provoked could be shown to cor- roborate his theory of unconscious resistances.
The movement had its schisms and defections. Dr. Jones makes no concealment of his own partisanship, and yet gives credit to each major dissident for his peculiar gifts. He points out that the irresponsible Stekel and loyal Ferenczi both had a 'flair for divin- ing the manifestations of the unconscious' which surpassed even that of Freud. Adler was guilty of 'an honourable error'; but it was Jung's departure which Freud felt most deeply, as he had hoped that Jung might be his heir-apparent. After this troubled time Jones took the initiative in forming the secret Committee, an inner circle of the elect. Rather against his will, the founder saw the Cause settling into an institution.
In portraying Freud's personality, Dr. Jones recognises that he is faced with the difficult undertaking of making virtue interesting.
In order to lighten the task, he indicates all his subject's faults: his obstinacy (`It was never easy to change Freud's opinion on any- thing'), his blind spots, such as his irrational antipathy to America ('Columbus's misdeed'), his being a poor judge of men and, sur- prisingly, his indiscretions over private communications. One can see that the biographer is guarding himself against over- valuation of his subject, for whom he has so affectionate a regard. In this Freud himself is his ally. He disliked hero-worship, saying
to one admirer: 'I have a high opinion of what I have discovered, but not of myself. Great discoverers are not always great men.' On several occasions he deplored his own limitations, particularly his poor grasp of mathematics and his antipathy to statistics and to philosophy. Psychoanalysis suffered from these limitations, which could lead to such aberrations as Stekel's: 'I am here to discover things; other people can prove them if they want to.'
Still, the personal defects are dwarfed by Freud's gigantic assets, his inquiring mind and his unflinching intellectual courage. Dr. Jones points out a number of strongly antithetical elements in his character, and offers a psychoanalytical explanation of them, but one major feature remains unexplained, his morality. Freud him- self could not account for it: 'Why I—and incidentally my six adult children also—have to be thoroughly decent human beings is quite incomprehensible to me.' Freud respected virtue in others, such as his life-long friend Pfister, the Protestant clergyman- analyst, whose magnanimity and whose optimism concerning human nature he admired but could not share. His own view of mankind was a pessimistic one: 'Most of them are in my experi- ence riff-raff.'
Among the epistles quoted here, there are many instances of Freud's faith in the truth of his discoveries, and hope for their ultimate recognition : but charity finds little place in them. For the discussion of this phenomenon we shall have to await Dr. Jones's final volume.
G. M. CARSTAIRS
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