Whose/Which “Freud”? Social Context and Discourse Analysis of the “Controversial Discussions”

Abstract

The significance of the “controversial discussions” held at the British PsychoAnalytical Society (BPS) during the 1940s for the history of psychoanalysis is well known. These discussions focused on issues of psychoanalytic technique, but the participants themselves understood that the meaning of psychoanalysis itself was at stake. Accounts of these debates often refer loosely to so-called “orthodox” Freudians led by Anna Freud, many of whom were émigrés from Vienna, so-called “Kleinians” led by Melanie Klein, and a third group seeking common ground. In this chapter, a somewhat different approach is attempted. In the first section, the social context of these discussions is outlined, at three levels of analysis: changing British policy toward émigrés from Germany and Austria; institutional politics within the BPS; and the biographical and career circumstances of émigré and British participants. In this section it is shown that a simple opposition of émigré “(Anna) Freudians” and British “innovators” or “seekers of compromise” fails to grasp the dynamics at work. In the second section, the focus shifts to the discussions themselves. Here it is shown that allusions to “Freud” were employed in varied ways to enhance the standing and to inform the positions of the actors.