"IT IS A NEW KIND OF DIASPORA" Riccardo Steiner "IT IS A NEW KIND OF DIASPORA" Explorations in the Sociopolitical and Cultural Context of Psychoanalysis Riccardo Steiner First published 2000 by Kamac Books Ltd. Published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, axon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA A subsidiary of Other Press LLC, New York Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2000 Riccardo Steiner The rights of Riccardo Steiner to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A c.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 9781855752504 (pbk) Edited, designed, and produced by Communication Crafts ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The paper on which the book is based was originally read at the first Congress of the International Association for the History of Psycho- analysis, held in Paris in May 1987, and was published in the first issue of the Revue Internationale &Histoire de la Psychanalyse. The Eng- lish version, which I have now completely rewritten and greatly ex- panded, first appeared in the International Review of Psycho-Analysis, 16 (1989), pp. 35-76, and was also read to the IPTAR in New York in November 1987. I take this opportunity to extend my thanks to Pearl King who, at the time I began researching for this paper, was the Honorary Archi- vist of the British Psycho-Analytical Society; to M. Molnar of the Freud Museum in London; and to the Sigmund Freud Copyrights in Colchester for their assistance and for having given me permission to quote from the letters used in this book. To Andrew Paskauskas I owe more than one extremely useful quotation from The Complete Corre- spondence ofSigmund Freud and Ernest Jones 1908-1939 (1993). I am also particularly grateful to the late Ilse Hellrnan and to Dr Josephine Stross for all their help. I would also like to thank Jill Duncan, Executive Archivist of the British Psycho-Analytical Society; Adriana Poyser, to whom I owe a v i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS special debt of gratitude because of her patience and intelligence in editing the manuscript; and Klara and Eric King, for their skill and patience in the production process of the book. Cesare Sacerdoti wanted this book and made it possible for it to be published. He knows why I am particularly moved by his care. We both know what the Diaspora meant for us and our relatives. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PREFACE 1 Introduction 2 The first emigration wave (1933-1935) and the first "Sorgenkinder" Uncertainty and confusion in Europe and North America 3 "What shall those members do?" Jones's politics in 1933 4 The refugees' American dream "They could emigrate for instance to Buffalo, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis . . ." 5 The final blow Edith Jacobsohna nd the expulsion of Jewisha nalysts from the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute viii CONTENTS 6 To die in freedom 7 Special "Kinder", special "Sorge" Wilhelm Reich, Edith Jacobsohn, and political neutrality in psychoanalysis 8 Jones, Anna Freud, the Viennese "Sorgenkinder", and "the English way of life" APPENDIX ONE APPENDlX TWO NOTES REFERENCES AND BlBLIOGRAPHY lNDEX PREFACE As part of a broader research on the cultural effects of the "new diaspora" in Great Britain and in other countries as far as psychoanalysis is concerned, this book traces some aspects of the politics of emigration of German and Austrian psycho- analysts during the Nazi persecution. Given the fundamental role played by Ernest Jones in that particu- lar set of circumstances, and given that both Anna Freud and Ernest Jones were very interesting individuals, both in their intellectual and in their "institutional" stature (as one might call it, considering the role they played in the way psychoanalysis developed), it would seem to me that the Ernest Jones-ha Freud correspondence during that period is an exceptionally important source for anyone who wishes to understand the sigruficance of what I refer to in this book as "the politics of emigration". The Ernest Jones-Anna Freud correspondence is an extensive ex- change of letters, begun in the late 1920s and continued until Jones's death in 1958. Of these letters, about 220 were written between 1933 and 1939, concluding with a letter from h aFre ud to Jones dated 20 January 1939 and sent from her home at 20 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3, where she had found refuge, along with her father and