IPA History of Psychoanalysis Committee : Freud’s Legacy in the Web Era 

Date & Time: Sunday 22nd July 2018, 16:00 – 17:30 GMT


Please note, this webinar will be delivered in English. 




 
The History of Psychoanalysis Committee brings individual efforts in the study of psychoanalytic history across the three regions into dialogue with each other and enhances inter-regional collaboration among IPA analysts. One of the Committee’s ongoing projects is to bring attention and provide support to the work of psychoanalytic archives, museums, and libraries across the globe.

In this webinar we discuss the single largest collection of Freud’s papers and documents—the collection assembled by the Sigmund Freud Archives (SFA). For decades, SFA has located, collected, and preserved Freud manuscripts, letters, and publications, as well as encouraged and facilitated research and writing about Freud and other pioneers of psychoanalysis. Most recently, in pursuit of its mission, it has helped to create a digital archive.

In 1951, SFA was founded to assemble and preserve Freud’s manuscripts, correspondence, and related materials. In that same year, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the world’s largest library, reached an agreement with SFA to become its depository. The original SFA trustees, under the directorship of Dr. Kurt R. Eissler, were Heinz Hartmann, Ernst Kris, Bertram Lewin, and Hermann Nunberg.

The Library of Congress received its first donation through SFA in 1952. Since then, in consultation with SFA, the Library his organised, catalogued, and preserved the collection, as well as continuously restored and expanded it. It communicates with and assists researchers and readers from across the globe. The Sigmund Freud Papers, housed in the Library’s Manuscript Division, has become the largest single archival collection of Freud’s work in the world. It now contains more than 48,000 pages and items.

Three successive Executive Directors of SFA—Harold P. Blum, Anton O. Kris, and Louis Rose—were early proponents of making the Freud collection available online. Last year, the Library of Congress, with the support of The Polonsky Foundation (a UK cultural heritage nonprofit) and with assistance from SFA, completed the digitisation of nearly half the collection, including all of Freud’s own writings, correspondence, and memorabilia. The digital collection also includes transcripts of hundreds of interviews with and recollections by Freud’s family, friends, and colleagues.

Currently, the Library of Congress is in the process of completing a project to place the Freud family films and photographs collected through SFA online as well.  Like the digital Freud Papers, they will also be accessible at the Library of Congress website.

In our digital age, the Freud Papers and visual media are becoming ever more widely available. In this webinar, the current and immediate past Executive Directors, Professor Louis Rose and Dr. Anton Kris, will review the mission, history, and future projects of the SFA. Senior Research Specialist Margaret McAleer, who supervises the Freud Papers at the Library of Congress, will guide participants through the organisation and use of the Freud Papers online.

Louis Rose is Professor of Modern European History at Otterbein University and Executive Director of the Sigmund Freud Archives. He received his Ph.D. in History from Princeton University with a thesis titled “The Psychoanalytic Movement in Vienna: Toward a Science of Culture.” His first book, The Freudian Calling: Early Viennese Psychoanalysis and the Pursuit of Cultural Science, received the 1999 Austrian Cultural Institute Prize for Best Book in Austrian Studies. It was followed by The Survival of Images: Art Historians, Psychoanalysts, and the Ancients. His most recent book is Psychology, Art, and Antifascism: Ernst Kris, E. H. Gombrich, and the Politics of Caricature, for which a Chinese translation is now in preparation. He is a member of the History of Psychoanalysis Committee of the IPA. From 2011-2018, he was Editor of the interdisciplinary psychoanalytic journal American Imago. In 2017, he received Honorary Membership of the American Psychoanalytic Association.


Dr. Anton O. Kris, Professor of Psychiatry, part-time, at Harvard Medical School, has been a psychiatrist for over fifty-five years, a psychoanalyst for over forty-five years, and a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute for over thirty-five years. He is the author of Free Association: Method and Process and numerous papers. Dr. Kris has served on the editorial boards of several of the major psychoanalytic journals and is currently the Chair of the Monitoring and Advisory Board of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. He has also served on the board of trustees of The Anna Freud Centre, The Anna Freud Foundation, and the Sigmund Freud Archives, of which he was Executive Director four years ago. He has received many prizes and awards, including the Felix and Helene Deutsch Prize, the Heinz Hartmann Award, and the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society. He regards himself as more a teacher than an innovator.


Margaret McAleer has been Senior Archives Specialist at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, from 1991 to present. She analyses, evaluates, and makes recommendations for the permanent retention of manuscript collections documenting United States history. She received her Ph.D. in History from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, Northern Virginia Community College.







 
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