| Abstract | Elizabeth Ann Danto, Freud’s Free Clinics: Psychoanalysis and Social Justice,1918–1938, New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Pp. 352. $29.50. ISBN
0–231–13180–1.
In 1918, two months before the Armistice, Freud brought together a group of leading
psychoanalysts in an effort to establish free out-patient clinics. The aim was to make
the ideas and techniques accessible to a broad cross-section of working people. The
extraordinary political and social climate of the interwar years provided the context for
such a broadminded, inclusive and radical endeavour. Between 1920 and 1938, free
treatment centres were successfully operating in seven countries and ten cities, which
included Moscow, Frankfurt, New York and Paris. The list of those involved reads like a
who’s who of the psychoanalytic community during the interwar years as Erik Erikson,
Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Bruno Bettelheim, Alfred Adler, Melanie Klein, Anna
Freud, Wilhelm Reich and Helene Deutsch were among those to participate. They
imagined themselves at the forefront of social change and positioned their work not
only within a medical paradigm but also within a progressive one. As Danto notes,
they ‘based their practice on a symbiotic relationship with the political values of the
Weimar era’ (p. 4). Governments in both Berlin and Vienna promoted and expanded
mental health and social services on a broader scale than had been the case prior to
the war and the free clinics signified a link between these developments and
psychoanalysis.
Danto provides a meticulous analysis of the innovative and path-breaking institutions
which were established, including the Vienna Ambulatorium, the Berlin Poliklinik,
Alfred Adler’s child guidance clinics and Wilhelm Reich’s Sex-Pol. The depth of research
and the astute analysis offered in this book make this an exceptional history and much
of its strength lies in the lively details included in the narrative. For instance, Reich’s
efforts to disseminate his views were at times unconventional and, to quote Danto, ‘in
1922, in Vienna, Reich ran Sex-Hygiene Clinics for Workers and Employees. . . . Several
days a week Reich and his team of psychoanalysts and physicians would drive in a van
out into Vienna’s suburbs and rural areas, announcing their visits in advance. They
would speak about sexual concerns to interested persons gathered at a local park . . ..
Upon request, the gynecologist would fit women with contraceptive devices’ (p. 115).
Although chased or arrested by police, Reich would give political talks in the evening
about repression, sexuality and psychoanalysis.
Focus on Psychiatry, Psychology and History 157
The destruction of this culture came swiftly and with horrific consequences as the Nazi
campaign successfully eliminated psychoanalysis; Freud and Adler’s books were publicly
burnt and Jewish doctors were rounded up. Matthias Goring, a specialist in nervous
and affective diseases since 1922 and a member of the Nationalist Socialist Party, the
SS and several other Nazi organisations, proceeded to abolish all Freudian terms like
‘Oedipus’ and ‘childhood sexuality’ from the teaching and practice of psychoanalysis.
Meanwhile, the exodus of analysts began in earnest and by the late 1930s many of
them had sought exile in Paris, Prague, Oslo and Los Angeles. In 1938 Freud himself
sought refuge in London, the year that Goring announced triumphantly that the
former’s publications were locked up in a ‘poison cupboard’ (p. 301). By then, psychoanalytic
terminology was replaced by desexualised pre-Freudian terms so that Oedipus
became ‘family’ and psychoanalysis became ‘developmental psychology’.
Where the book might have done more is in providing details about those who sought
treatment at the clinics. It would have been interesting to know how they viewed psychoanalysis
and what benefits they were seeking from such treatment. Nevertheless, this is a
dramatic story eloquently told by Danto who has written a compelling, engaging and
fascinating account of a largely under-researched aspect of the history of psychoanalysis.
With great flair she captures the spirit and ethos of a time when psychoanalysts were
committed to a sense of civic responsibility. The world evoked here is one that reminds
us of the progressive, creative and innovative possibilities within psychoanalysis. It also
provides a timely opportunity to reflect on where the cultural, humanist and political
dimensions of Freudian thought are now located, after the medicalisation of psychoanalysis
in the name of conformity.
Joy Damousi
University of Melbourne
doi: 10.1093/shm/hkj014
|