File 12 - Abraham Arden Brill

5 files

There is a single letter from 1911 from Bluma[?] Chouffet to Brill discussing her analysis with him and her relationship with Jones (see also letter from Bluma[?] Chouffet to Ernest Jones, ref. P04-C-F-03).

Correspondence, with Jones, from 1919-1938 is wide ranging, concerning professional, personal and political matters. These include considerable discussion regarding the membership and organisation of the American Psychoanalytical Association and local societies and especially Brill’s difficulties with various members. There are also many letters concerning the funding, content and publishing of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Also discussed are the issues of analyst training and lay practitioners in the USA. Amongst all these discussions are frequent references to significant figures in psychoanalysis, including Sigmund Freud, Max Eitingon, Sandor Ferenczi, Clarence Oberndorf, H W Frink, Adolph Stern, Smith Ely Jelliffe, Otto Rank, Albert Polon, Anna Freud, Gregory Zilboorg.

From 1933-1938 many letters discuss the political situation in Europe with the rise of Nazism and the implications for various analysts and groups. These include arrangements for the resulting emigration and resettlement of analysts from Germany and other affected states.Also discussed is the internment of Edith Jacobson in 1935.

There is a single letter from 1940 from Brill regarding Jones’ son Mervyn on his stay in America with the Brills and also a proposed Freud memorial. There is also one letter in 1956 from Rose Brill complaining of criticism of her husband in Jones’ biography of Freud.

A letter from Jones to Brill, dated 2 May 1933, can be found amongst Jones' correspondence with Anna Freud, as the carbon copy paper was used twice.

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