Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1883-2006 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
1 box
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Joan Hodgson Verrall was born on 28 Jun 1883 into a family of Cambridge academics and in 1906 married a barrister, Evelyn Riviere, the son of the painter Briton Riviere.
Her interest in psychoanalysis emerged from meetings of the Society for Psychical Research organised by her uncle, A W Verrall, where she encountered the work of Sigmund Freud and read papers by Ernest Jones.
She had already studied the German language in Germany when she was seventeen and her diary shows that she had begun to translate Freud by 1919. In her twenties she suffered from mental and physical ill health and underwent an analysis with Ernest Jones from 1916-1921. She attended early meetings of the British Psychoanalytical Society and at the Hague conference in 1920, she met Freud for the first time and asked to be analysed by him. She translated for the newly-created 'International Journal of Psychoanalysis', becoming its translation editor. In 1921 she joined Freud and his daughter Anna, Ernest Jones and James and Alix Strachey on the Glossary Committee, and worked with them to translate Freud's work, supervising the translation and editing volumes 1, 2 and 4 of the Collected Papers. She became Britain's first lay analyst and was later a key figure in the reception of Melanie Klein's ideas, taking an active role in the Controversial Discussions.
She had one daughter, Diana Briton Riviere. She died on 20 May 1962.
Repository
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Professional, personal and family material related to Joan Riviere including: professional papers, namely correspondence and copies of a published article; letters received after her death by her daughter, Diana Riviere; personal and genealogical material; photographs.
Accruals
Further accruals may be received.
System of arrangement
Material is arranged into four series as follows and then chronologically:
P02-A - Professional papers
P02-B - Posthumous material: letters to Diana Riviere
P02-C - Personal and family materials
P02-D - Photographs
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Access to our archive collections in our reading room is by appointment only; please email the archivist to arrange your visit. Please note that access to material that is in poor physical condition may be restricted.
Access to the information in our archive is governed by our access policy and guided by sector ethical codes and relevant legislation.
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Conditions governing reproduction
Copies of material from our archive collections may be supplied for research and private study in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Written permission must be obtained from the chair of the archive committee and the archivist to reproduce or publish any material held in our archive.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearance from the copyright holder.
We reserve the right to make a charge for the publication of material obtained from our archive.
Language of material
- English
- French
- German
Script of material
- Latin
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
The collection catalogue is published online. A database containing abstracts of the correspondence also exists but is not available online.
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Letters from Joan Riviere can be found in the papers of various psychoanalysts, including Ernest Jones (ref. P04-C-E-05) and James & Alix Strachey (ref. P17-F-C-02).
Elsewhere, the Sigmund Freud Archives at the Library of Congress hold the original letters from Sigmund Freud to Joan Riviere from which the items in P02-A-03 were translated, as well as the interviews between Riviere and K R Eissler referred to in P02-A-05. Also, the Melanie Klein collection at the Wellcome Library includes correspondence with Joan Riviere, including letters related to the Controversial Discussions (ref. PP/KLE).
The original versions of photocopied personal materials in this collection are believed to be held by members of the Riviere family in the USA.
Publication note
These papers were used by Athol Hughes in the following works:
Hughes, Athol. 'Joan Riviere: her life and work' in 'The Inner World and Joan Riviere: Collected Papers 1920-1958' (London: Karnac Books; 1991).
Hughes, Athol. Personal Experiences - Professional Interests: Joan Riviere And Femininity. International Journal of Psychoanalysis; 1991: 78: 899-911.
Hughes, Athol. 'Riviere, Joan Hodgson (1883-1962)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
- Latin
Sources
Athol Hughes, 'Riviere, Joan Hodgson (1883-1962)', 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography', Oxford University Press, 2004.