The history of the psychoanalytic movementFreud, Sigmund
History
The history of the psychoanalytic movement
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis -- History
I have repeatedly and gratefully acknowledged the efforts of the Zürich
Psychiatric School in the spreading of psychoanalysis, especially those
of Bleuler and Jung, and I do not hesitate to do the same today, even
under such changed circumstances. It was certainly not the partisanship
of the Zürich School which at that time first directed the attention of
the scientific world to the subject of psychoanalysis. This latency
period had just come to an end, and psychoanalysis everywhere became the
object of constantly increasing interest. But whilst in all the other
places this manifestation of interest resulted first in nothing but a
violent and emphatic repudiation of the subject, in Zürich, on the
contrary, the main feeling of the situation was that of agreement. In no
other place was so compact a little gathering of adherents to be found,
nowhere also was it possible to place a public clinic at the service of
psychoanalytic investigation, or to find a clinical teacher who regarded
the principles of psychoanalysis as an integral part of the teaching of
psychiatry. The Zürich doctors became, as it were, the nucleus of the
little band which was fighting for the recognition of psychoanalysis.
Only in Zürich was there a possible opportunity to learn the new art and
to apply it in practice. Most of my present-day followers and co-workers
came to me via Zürich, even those who might have found, geographically
speaking, a shorter road to Vienna than to Switzerland. Vienna lies in
an eccentric position from western Europe, which houses the great
centers of our culture. For many years it has been much affected by
weighty prejudices. The representatives of the most prominent nations
stream into Switzerland, which is so mentally active, and an infective
lesion in this place was sure to become very important for the
dissemination of the “psychic epidemic,” as Hoche of Freiburg called it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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