First Dictionary of Psychoanalisys
First Dictionary of Psychoanalisys
First Dictionary of Psychoanalisys
DICTIONARY OF
PSYCHOANALYSIS
A Gift for Sigmund Freuds
80th Birthday
The right of Richard Sterba to be identified as the authors of this work has been
asserted in accordance with 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and Patents
Act 1988.
ISBN-13: 978-1-78220-053-6
www.karnacbooks.com
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii
A NOTE ON TRANSLATION ix
FOREWORD xiii
DICTIONARY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, AG 1
EPILOGUE 201
REFERENCES 233
v
ACKNOWL EDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deep gratitude to all the people who have
supported me in this daunting undertaking and have assisted me in
innumerable ways in bringing this project to its completion:
To Salman Akhtar, psychoanalyst, author, friend, colleague, poet, and
lexicographer extraordinaire, who first brought the existence of Sterbas
lexicon to my attention and convinced me of its historical importance
and the value of making it accessible to the public.
To Leticia Fiorini and Gennaro Saragnano, former and present chairs
of the publications committee of the International Psychoanalytical
Association; and to its members, Mary Kay ONeil, Samuel Arbiser,
Gail Reed, Christian Seulin and Paulo Sandler, who have responded
positively to all my suggestions and wholeheartedly supported my
efforts in bringing the project to fruition.
To Robert Michels, Verena Sterba Michels and Katherine J. Michels,
whose long-standing dedication to psychoanalysis and whose familial
ties to Richard Sterba have immeasurably enriched both the content
and spirit of the work.
To Nellie Thompson, who made it possible for me to gain access to the
transcript of the interview with Richard Sterba, made under the auspices
of the Columbia Psychoanalytic Textbook Project, which is included in
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Peter T. Hoffer
Philadelphia, September 2012
A NOTE ON TRANSLATION
Peter T. Hoffer
PREFACE TO RICHARD STERBAS DICTIONARY
OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
July 3, 1932
Salman Akhtar
Fine, 1990; Rycroft, 1968). Some of these books are slim, others hefty.
Some are stolid and avoid trivia. Others have a light touch and even a
bit of humour. Some contain technical recommendations while others
strive for clinical neutrality. Such differences notwithstanding, perusal
of these volumes is always illuminating and useful.
Note that so far I have used the phrase psychoanalytic dictionary
in its literal sense. I contend, however, that there is more to this phrase
than meets the eye. And, here I am in debt to the eminent North
American psychoanalyst, Fred Pine, who, in talking of the large number
of concepts that have evolved and are now prevalent in psychoanalysis,
deploys the term psychoanalytic dictionary as a metaphor. He states
that:
The last phrase of this passage has become more affectively convincing
for me now that I have access to Sterbas complete text in English. What
impresses me is the highly textured quality of this work. Five of its fea-
tures are particularly worth noting.
References
Abram, J. (2007). The Language of Winnicott. London: Karnac.
Akhtar, S. (2009). Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. London:
Karnac.
Auchincloss, E. & Samberg, E. (Eds.) (2013). Psychoanalytic Terms and
Concepts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Bolognini, S. (2011). Secret Passages: The Theory and Technique of Interpsychic
Relations. G. Atkinson (Trans.). London: Routledge.
Eidelberg, L. (Ed.) (1968). Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis. New York: Free
Press.
Evans, D. (1996). An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis.
New York: Routledge.
Freud, S. (1915e). The unconscious. S. E., 14: 159216.
Hartmann, H. (1939). Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation.
D. Rapaport (Trans.). New York: International Universities Press, 1958.
Hinshelwood, R. (1989). A Dictionary of Kleinian Thought. Northvale, NJ:
Jason Aronson.
Hoffer, P. (2003). The wise baby meets the enfant terrible: the evolu-
tion of Ferenczis views on development. Psychoanalytic Psychology,
20: 1829.
FOREWORD xix
1
2 T H E F I R S T D I C T I O N A RY O F P S Y C H OA N A LY S I S
Adler, Alfred
See Individual Psychology [Individualpsychologie].
1. Those which are constitutional, innate, and inherited, which are inac-
cessible to treatment. As such, we count: high capacity for the arousal
of individual erogenous zones, strong tendency towards repression,
spontaneous sexual precocity. These inner causes are often not suf-
ficient, in and of themselves, to produce an illness. One must also
include
2. Accidental causes. These have emerged during the development
of the individual. Of special importance among them are the
influences on early childhood up to the sixth year of life in the form
of seductions to sexual acts by other children or adults, or strong
experiences of fright or anxiety by observing adults, or by being
threatened by them. The effect of accidental experiences can be
removed through psychoanalysis, but in so doing the consequences
of the constitutional factors are also subject to influence. On the
mutual relationship between the two series of causes with regard to
the effect of illness, see complemental series [Ergnzungsreihe].
differ from feelings by virtue of their higher intensity and the fact that
they embrace the entire personality, so that few other contents have
room in consciousness alongside an affect. Corresponding to the sig-
nificance of discharge [Abfuhrbedeutung] of affects, we find in them
innervations of musculature and of numerous glands, which move
along with feelings of pleasure and unpleasure. According to Freud,
the repetition of a particular, meaningful traumatic experience forms
the nucleus of every affect, whereby this experience is situated very
early, in general in the prehistory, not of the individual, but of the spe-
cies. States of affect are thus incorporated in mental life as precipitates
of ancient traumatic experiences. The experience of birth is considered
to be the model for the affective state of anxiety. This view of psy-
choanalysis about the origin of affects is very close to the Darwinian
conception, which views affects as rudiments of instinctual actions
[Triebhandlungen]. In any event, affects are in inner correlation with
instincts. Above all, they derive their energy (amount of affect) from
the instincts and signify a possibility of discharge for instinctual ten-
sions [Triebspannungen].
In the repression [Verdrngung] (see separate entry) of an affect,
the representative [Reprsentanz] of the affect, that is, the percep-
tion, or the representation [Vorstellung], or the wish that has released
it, becomes unconscious. The amount of affect remains in the id
and is prevented from assaulting the ego by means of anticathexis
[Gegenbesetzung] (see separate entry). Amounts of affect that were
released by the representative can be displaced, condensed, and
transformed in the id. The amount of affect can also find abnormal
use in symptoms.
from the current psychic material the infantile instinctual forces that are
always operating within it.
fact that repressions are lifted and sublimations are made to retrogress.
Freud compares the euphoric mood of the acute rush to manic states
and explains them by means of toxically determined removal of expen-
ditures of repression, which corresponds to a dismantling of the super-
ego. The influence that alcohol has in lifting repression also extends
to the chronic form. This provides an explanation for the raw acts, the
exhibitionistic attitude, the frequent breaches of incest barriers, and
the more pronounced appearance of homosexuality in chronic drink-
ers. Homosexuality is readily apparent in the chronic drinker. It can
be traced partly to a diminution of potency, partly to the frequent
intercourse with men in drinking circles. The delusions of jealousy
[Eifersuchtswahn] (see separate entry) of the drinker signify a defence
against homosexual temptation, whereby the one who is stricken by
it suspects his wife [of infidelity] with all the men whom he, himself,
unconsciously loves. An extremely strong oral erotism seems to be a
specific aetiological factor in drinking addiction.
In it, thought possesses the legitimacy and validity of an event; the idea,
the legitimacy and validity of a fact; the wish, those of a deed. The cause
of this overestimation of psychic occurrences vis vis reality lies in the
particular attitude of the child and the primitive towards himself, which
also remains partially preserved in the neurotic. Up to a certain phase
in his development, the child considers himself to be the midpoint of all
happenings and is strengthened in this conviction by the readiness of
the carers around him to react by fulfilling the expression of his desires,
as is, in fact, frequently unavoidable when one has to care for a brood.
Thus, the child lives in a pronounced state of grandiosity, which is an
expression of his love of self. This attitude remains preserved in the
primitive to a large extent, partially so in the neurotic. The high valu-
ation of ones own psychic impulses, which are therefore considered
omnipotent just for this reason, comes from the strong libidinal cathexis
of ones own self, which is called narcissism [Narzimus] ( see separate
entry). An expression of this omnipotence of thoughts is the technique
of magic [Magie] (see separate entry), which consists in the fact that an
ideal or imagined happening is considered to actually have an effect,
and an attempt is made to control the external world in this ideational
or pictorially represented manner. The consequence of the omnipotence
of thoughts is that, since the evil thought and the evil wish psychically
acquire the status of an act, the penalty is imposed by conscience in such
a way as to make it seem as if the act had really been committed.
and the same object, one of which bears the opposite signature of the
other. Such a bifurcated attitude occurs already in normal mental life.
Thus, one fears an operation but also wants it at the same time. Or, one
longs for a new job but also shies away from it (Bleuler). In general, in
the normal adult, what is felt to be negative in an object-relation weak-
ens what is positive, and the other way around. Not so in the child. The
childs mental life is distinguished by the fact that the tendencies of
opposite, tender, and hostile feelings vis vis the same person remain
more or less juxtaposed without influencing one another. The ambiva-
lence of the child is linked most profoundly to his sexual aims. In the
time of early development, they have, alongside the positive tone,
a strongly hostile character, which, to be sure, declines markedly in the
development towards the genital stage of organisation. The sexual aim:
devouring as an expression of the oral object relation simultaneously
intends the most intimate intake of the object, comparable to the anni-
hilation of its real existence. The sadistic aims at the second stage of
libido want to keep the object well, to have it for oneself, to be close to
it, but also simultaneously to cause it pain, to dominate it. Even at the
third stage of organisation, the phallic, the sadistic factor, comes into
play in the Oedipal phase in the propensity on the part of the boy to
conquer the mother, to take possession of her, to rape her, just as, on the
part of the girl, hate, the desire to attack and damage the fathers penis
plays a role in the otherwise tenderly positive relationship with the par-
ent of the opposite sex. Thus, the ambivalence is overcome only step by
step. In the primitive person and in the neurotic, trace manifestations
of ambivalence remain to an increased extent and express themselves
in attitude and symptoms. Thus, the taboos [Tabu] (see separate entry)
of savages are an expression of ambivalence. The compulsive symp-
toms of the neurotic, especially the dichronous ones, in which a second
symptom has to cancel out the psychic act of the first in short succes-
sion, show ambivalence quite openly. Thus, the classic symptom of the
Rat-Man [Rattenmann] (Freud, 1909d) (see separate entry): On the day
of her [the woman whom he adored] departure he knocked his foot
against a stone lying in the road, and was obliged to put it out of the way
by the side of the road, because the idea struck him that her carriage
would be driving along the same road in a few hours time and might
come to grief against this stone. But a few minutes later it occurred to
him that this was absurd, and he was obliged to go back and replace the
stone in its original position in the middle of the road (p. 190; emphasis
A 25
Ambivalenzkampf
See conflict of ambivalence [Ambivalenzkonflikt].
but then the entire conflict of ambivalence usually shifts over to the
substitute object and leads to a phobic avoidance of it.
connection to the anus, that is, the region of the buttocks (beating); or,
the association is a genetic one, such as an anal character trait = a char-
acter trait that has arisen from quantities of instinct of the anal region;
anal symptom = a symptom that owes its origin to anal sources of
instinct (see anal erotism [Analerotik]).
Analitt
is a synonym for anal erotism (see separate entry).
A 31
childhood must take place, which poses mostly soluble difficulties for
those in the process of puberty. If this separation does not occur with
corresponding fixation [Fixierung] (see separate entry), conflicts occur
between ego and superego, which end in neurotic symptom-formation.
Assoziationsexperiment (association-experiment;
test dassociation, association provoque)
The association experiment of Wundts psychological school consists
in a person designated as the object of the experiment being given
the task of responding as quickly as possible to a stimulus word that
is called out to him with a reaction word of his choice. One can then
study the interval that passes between stimulus and reaction, the
nature of the response given as a reaction, a possible error in a sub-
sequent repetition of the same experiment, and the like. The Zurich
school under Bleuler and Jung gave the explanation of the reactions
that result in the association experiment by requiring the object of
the experiment to elucidate the reactions that he had by means of
after-the-fact [nachtrgliche] associations when they had something
striking in them. It then turns out that these striking reactions are
determined in the most clear-cut manner by the experimental objects
complexes.
48 T H E F I R S T D I C T I O N A RY O F P S Y C H OA N A LY S I S
Assoziationspsychologie (association-psychology;
associationnisme)
Proceeding from the cognitive-theoretical psychological investigations
of the seventeenth century (especially Lockes), the first scientific psy-
chology was founded by Hartley, James, and John Stuart Mill. It domi-
nated psychology of the second half of the twentieth century with the
imprint given it by Fechner and Wundt, and even today it still pervades
psychological thinking to a considerable extent. This basic trend in psy-
chology gets its name from the attempt to resolve analytically all con-
scious phenomena in sensationsthat is to say, representationsand
to conceive of the complex phenomena as combinations of those latter
elements. The connection of the elements occurs by means of their asso-
ciation; the association ensues according to laws, the most important
of which reads: what was closely connected in its first experience in
time and space has a tendency to reproduce itself associated in time
and space; the more frequent the simultaneous experience, the deeper
the associative connection.
Since 1900 there has been a steadily increasing emphasis on the
inadequacy of association-psychology, which is seen primarily in a
sensualistic, empiricist, and atomistic light. Despite its use of the word
association and Freuds original point of departure in his time, psycho-
analysis has hardly anything to do with association psychology. First
of all, it is a psychology of consciousness; secondly, psychoanalysis has
shown the so-called association law to be invalid and has replaced it
with a more finely-structured concept of the processes of representation
(see association [Assoziation]) (Siegfried Bernfeld, 1932).
to be especially protected and favoured by fate, and the like. The cause
of this attitude later becomes unconscious, without becoming inoper-
able in the process. Many women also feel damaged at an infantile level
on account of the lack of a penis and, as compensation, they lay claim
to an exceptional position that frequently also gives them occasion to
overestimate men sexually.
60
B 61
the object through the mouth zone, simultaneous with the desire to
annihilate it in the process by biting and chewing, in other words,
by oral-sadistic activity. The oral impulses of the biting phase, which
are also designated as cannibalistic, are thus distinguished by a high
degree of ambivalence [Ambivalenz] (see separate entry). (See cannibal-
istic phase of organisation of libido [kannibalistische Organisationsstufe
der Libido].)
Biting can also play a role in the sexual activity of adults. Many
people bite their lovers as an expression of sexual arousal, in order
to heighten arousal, or at the moment of greatest sexual pleasure. In
melancholia [Melancholie] (see separate entry), a regression to the can-
nibalistic phase takes place and, along with it, a re-experiencing of the
oral-sadistic impulses of the biting phase. The unpleasure in eating and
the aversion to food in melancholia can be explained by the inhibition
of these impulses. In children, laziness in chewing and many other dif-
ficulties with eating can also be traced to the inhibition of the desire to
bite.
Bequemlichkeitstraum (convenience- or
accommodation-dream; rve de commodit )
Freud designates as dreams of convenience those dreams which directly
represent a, mostly bodily, need, which comes up in sleep, as having
been fulfilled. Thus, for example, a dream about drinking, which is stim-
ulated by thirst, is a convenience-dream. Dreams, in which an activity
that is to be accomplished, such as having to get up, going to the office,
etc., is dreamed about in advance, are also convenience-dreams; for the
time it takes the dreamer to dream, he is spared having to fulfil in real-
ity what is demanded of him. Convenience-dreams usually occur in
people who sleep well. In the final analysis, all dreams are convenience-
dreams; they save waking up, inasmuch as they represent a stimulus to
a wish, and in so doing, they guard sleep.
who has fallen ill. It occurs mostly in the form of cramping of muscle
groups that are necessary for professional activity (writers cramp, pian-
ists cramp, milkmaids cramp). The cause of occupational neurosis is
the sexualisation of the function in question. Since, however, the sexual
striving which is symbolised and gratified by the occupational func-
tion is one that is forbidden, the activity is inhibited by the superego.
The severe impairment that results from this serves the satisfaction of
guilt-feeling and the need for punishment [Strafbedrfnis] (see separate
entry), which often stands as a hindrance to the therapy of occupational
neuroses.
when they are allowed into consciousness by censorship. They are then
inwardly perceived by a mental organ that we conceive of as a kind
of sense organ. Thus, we call this sense organ of inward perception of
psychic processes consciousness. We think of becoming conscious as
the achievement of ones own psychic system, which we designate as
Cs., and we imagine that becoming conscious occasions an accretion
of cathexis. Excitations close in on this system of perception, at first
from the outside. These excitations from outside are taken up by the
sense organs and are in general directed towards consciousness. There
is no necessity, however, for all perceptions to get to consciousness. The
negative hallucinations of hysteria, for instance, are characterised by
the fact that well-made perceptions are not, however, allowed to enter
consciousness. This is also easily observable in hypnosis. Secondly,
consciousness serves the perception of pleasure and unpleasure, that is,
of qualities that originate inside the apparatus. Consciousness is situ-
ated between inside and outside with respect to the excitations that it
receives; we have to place it in the cerebral cortex. The discharge of
excitations is also perceived by consciousness in the form of affects.
Consciousness relates to inner processes in the same way as a sense
organ does to the external world. The teleological meaning of conscious-
ness is that it can carry out a purposeful distribution of psychic cathexis
and [manage] a selection of excitations to be discharged by means of the
perception of pleasure and unpleasure and a simultaneous knowledge
of the excitations that come to it from outside through the sense organs
(reality testing).
cell [Urzelle], and human beings also show the individual stages of the
development of animal species that manifest themselves during the
time it takes to develop their embryos.
Only with the advent of psychoanalysis has it been shown that the
biogenetic law is also fully valid in the psychic sphere. The stages of
development primal to civilised man are repeated, at least figuratively,
in the mental development of the child up to adulthood. Not only are
there numerous correspondences in the individual stages of mental
development of the child with the psychology of primitive peoples
and savages, which we consider to be remnants of earlier states of the
cultural and psychic development of humankind, but the regressions
of adults in neurosis, psychosis, and the formation of groups are also
evinced by traits and peculiarities that we observe in primitive peo-
ples. Even in normal adults, dream-life shows numerous indications of
primitive mental life intimately connected with parts of the mind that
have remained infantile.
Thus, the oral-sadistic phase of the libido corresponds to the canni-
balism [Kannibalismus] (see separate entry) of primitives, the phase of
omnipotence of thoughts [Allmacht der Gedanken] (see separate entry) in
the child to the primitives magical world of ideas (see magic [Magie]),
the phase of the Oedipus complex and castration anxiety to the situa-
tion of the primal horde (see primal horde [Urhorde]), the latency period
to the exigencies of the Ice Age, with its compulsion to intellectual
progress, along with many other examples.
The added applicability of the biogenetic law to psychic develop-
ment permits us to make inferences about the psychic and cultural
development of humankind from the infantile stages of development
and their idiosyncrasies.
future, all its results will find biological confirmation in the findings of
the chemistry of sexuality.
[ber-Ich] (see separate entry) demands that the ego should suffer,
can reverse the compulsion to penance and free [one] from neurotic
suffering.
78
C 79
for its development and direction. Thus, for instance, the possibility of
extending an instinct into a character trait or, on the other hand, setting
up a character trait as a reaction-formation against it, depends essen-
tially on external influences and vicissitudes. To that extent, character is
also capable of being influenced psychoanalytically to a limited degree
by removing the infantile repressions.
Analysis combines some characteristics of character [Charakterei-
genschaften] that originate from an equal basis of instinct into char-
acters, which are named after the instinctual basis in question (see
anal character, oral character). In addition to that, psychopathology
names characters that are frequently found in conjunction with specific
symptom-complexes (hysterical character, obsessive-compulsive char-
acter) according to these symptom-complexes. In his paper, Libidinal
Types (1931a), Freud attempts a character typology based on dividing
the libido into the various provinces of the mental apparatus. According
to this, he distinguishes a narcissistic type, whose libido operates princi-
pally in the ego, an erotic type, whose libido is made up predominantly
of object-cathexes, and a compulsive type, whose libido is housed mainly
in the superego. For the most part one finds mixtures of the pure types.
Of those that are current in the psychoanalytic literature, the follow-
ing are cited:
analer Charakter , see Anal character,
Charakterwiderstand (character-resistance;
rsistance caractrielle)
Wilhelm Reich designates as character resistances those resistances to
psychoanalytic treatment which make their mark, not by means of their
content, but by the specific manner of being [Wesensart] of the analy-
sand. Reich is of the opinion that the form of defensive reaction of the
ego that comes to light in character traits can just as easily be traced
back to experiences of childhood as can the content of symptoms and
fantasies. In overcoming these character resistances one would have to
take as objects of interpretation the attitude, the how of what comes
to mind, dreams, parapraxes, associations, etc., even more than their
content, in order to discover the instinctual attitudes lodged behind the
character resistance and make them accessible to analysis. See Reich
(1928, p. 180).
Clan
One designates as clan a tribal community of primitive peoples in which
totemism [Totemismus] (see separate entry) and exogamy [Exogamie] (see
separate entry) are prevalent. The designation originally stems from the
tribal units of the Scottish Highlands, whose members believed they
were descended from a tribal father.
Coitus a tergo
means the type of sexual intercourse in which the male member is intro-
duced into the vagina from behind. This can occur when the woman
is situated on her side or on her knees. Since the latter type of sexual
intercourse resembles that of the higher animals, it is also designated
as coitus more ferarum (in the manner of animals). The act of sexual
intercourse from behind is not considered perverse if it is not prac-
tised exclusively, but rather is included among the variations within
the spectrum of the normal. It is preferred by persons who are anally
inclined, since it offers an opportunity to satisfy anal instinctual ten-
dencies. Latent homosexual component instincts [Triebkomponenten] are
also satisfied with this kind of sexual intercourse.
Coitus interruptus
means interrupted intercourse. Interrupted intercourse is practised by
the man pulling his member out of the vagina before ejaculation, so that
ejaculation does not occur, or does so outside the vagina. Coitus inter-
ruptus occurs for the purpose of contraception or for neurotic reasons.
The use of this technique of sexual intercourse is decidedly inadvis-
able; serious nervous disturbances can occur in the man as well as in
the woman. In the man, the natural course of releasing libido is dis-
rupted by active wilful exertion at the moment of maximal pleasure;
the woman frequently fails to reach orgasm as a result of the premature
cessation of friction, and her arousal remains without psychosomatic
relaxation of tension. Thus, coitus interruptus must be considered seri-
ously injurious from a sexual perspective. It is one of the most frequent
causes of anxiety neurosis [Angstneurose] (see separate entry).
88
D 89
dgnr
See degeneration.
Dj entendu
Dj prouv
Dj racont
Dj vu
See fausse reconnaissance.
dlire de toucher
French for fear of touching. See Berhrung.
Dementia praecox
See schizophrenia.
Destrudo
Edoardo Weiss (1935) suggests that we call the energy of the death or
destructive instinct destrudo, in analogy to libido, the designation we
give to the energy of the love or sexual instinct.
98 T H E F I R S T D I C T I O N A RY O F P S Y C H OA N A LY S I S
prostitution. She is usually frigid in the act, thus denying her ultimate
devotion in love; she is faithful to no man and in that way avenges
herself on the father, whom she unconsciously accuses of being
unfaithful to her, since he belongs to the mother. The money that she
takes has the meaning of the penis; she castrates men thereby. Her life
is in the service of unconscious, very aggressive motives of revenge.
Fantasies of prostitution, frequent as they are with the female sex, are
based on the same instinctual motives as is prostitution itself. One
frequently finds in prostitutes a polymorphous-perverse disposition
of the sexual instinct, often with a not inconsiderable homosexual
component in it.
In the unconscious of men, the prostitute frequently has the mean-
ing of the mother. She acquires this significance in the phase in which
the boy learns about the adults sexual relations and at the same time
becomes cognisant of the fact that women perform the sexual act
professionally for the sake of compensation. Since his doubt about
whether his parents also have sexual intercourse must dissipate with
time, he finds the difference between mother and prostitute to be
slight, since both have succumbed to the forbidden sexuality. Since
the prostitute also seems to be accessible to him, he is inclined, uncon-
sciously, to equate the prostitute with the mother according to his
Oedipus complex.
Don Juan
The figure of Don Juan is a legendary masculine personality whose main
interest is conquering women. After reaching this goal, the Don Juan
turns away from every individual woman and looks for the next object
for the satisfaction of his instincts. This Don Juan behaviour, which can
be observed in numerous men, is psychologically determined by rep-
etitions from the time of the Oedipus complex. The eternal search for
new women applies to the mother, whom the Don Juan hopes to find in
every woman, in the process of which his hopes, however, are dashed
in every new love relationship, and he avenges himself for this disap-
pointment and the one he suffered in childhood with the mother by
disappointing and abandoning the woman herself. At the same time,
a role is being played in his efforts with women to the effect that a
third person, to whom the woman belongs, is damaged. In this dam-
aged third he fights the father, who robbed him of the mothers love.
See Rank (1922).
Dora
is the name given by Freud to the patient whose analysis and case his-
tory he published in the paper Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of
Hysteria in 1905.
107
108 T H E F I R S T D I C T I O N A RY O F P S Y C H OA N A LY S I S
pleasure of the oral zone [orale Zone] (see separate entry). Weaning thus
takes away the most important source of pleasure for the child.
For many children, this weaning is borne without difficulty. The
thumb or another finger or object (pacifier) substitutes to a consider-
able extent for the nipple that has been given up. When the teeth break
through, biting and chewing serve the satisfaction of pleasure of the
oral zone (see separate entry), and consequently the urge for the pleas-
ure of sucking abates. Numerous other children, however, take the loss
of the mothers breast very hard; weaning has a traumatic effect on
them, especially when it happens suddenly. The nervous disposition of
the child frequently manifests itself for the first time on the occasion of
weaning. These children react to the withdrawal of breast milk by refus-
ing all other nourishment, with a sad mood and heightened irritability.
Constitutionally determined, strong oral instinctual desire increases the
difficulty of weaning. It should take place very gradually, if possible,
only at a time when teething puts a natural end to the act of withdraw-
ing the breast.
By withdrawing a libidinally cathected organ, which is copathic
[zuempfunden] to the ego, namely the mothers breast, weaning forms a
model of castration [Kastration] (see separate entry). (See also mothers
breast [Mutterbrust].)
If the vertical distance a from one point of the diagonal to the lower
side of the rectangle signifies to us the quantity of the one cause, then
the vertical distance b from the same point to the upper side [signi-
fies to us] the mass of the other cause, which, by mutual interaction, is
necessary for achieving the effect E. As the one distance decreases,
the other increases, so that the effect E comes about, which says that,
with a small partial cause a the enlargement by means of the partial
cause b must become correspondingly greater, so that the phenome-
non materialises, and vice versa. At the end-points, one cause, at the cor-
responding level [Hhe], is sufficient for the effect [to take place]. Thus,
from this auxiliary concept of the complemental series, one derives the
E 127
Errten
See erythrophobia (Erythrophobie).
Er-Systeme
See memory [Erinnerung].
aid, change of milieu, etc.) Thus, the term child guidance does not
cover the extent of its tasks. The total fulfilment of all tasks that have
been assigned to child guidance is only possible when it is part of an
organised welfare programme for young people or can at least have
sufficient influence on those welfare arrangements that are necessary to
achieve its goal. These child guidance measures pursue a general goal.
If they confine themselves to special goals, such as really to give only
expert advice or to serve as a screening location, then connections with
welfare arrangements for young people can be dispensed with. If only
children with specific bodily or psychic defects are at issue, for exam-
ple, blind, deaf, crippled children, psychopaths, delinquents, etc., then
connections with the corresponding special welfare arrangements for
young people will suffice.
Psychoanalytic child guidance is child guidance with a general goal.
It differs fundamentally from the other modes of child guidance in that
it uses the investigative results of psychoanalytic psychology to clarify
and rectify educational emergencies (see Aichhorn, 1937).
The ego [Ich] (see separate entry) is nothing other than a modified
part of the id; the ego is in communication with the id; only the
repressed parts of the id are sealed off from the ego. The id is con-
nected to the perceptual apparatus by way of the Er-Systeme (see mem-
ory [Erinnerung]). It is normally separated from motility by the ego. It
wrestles with the ego over mastery of affectivity with sporadic suc-
cess. All psychic processes begin in the id. A portion of them gets into
the ego and is discharged by way of the ego after passing a censorship,
which operates at the boundary between ego and id. The censorship
halts forbidden strivings or casts them back to the id when they have
already passed the censorship. They are then designated as repressed
and are kept in repression by anti-cathexes [Gegenbesetzungen] (see
separate entry) of the ego. The repressed constitutes a large portion
of the id.
The superego (see separate entry) is formed out of modified id-
impulses, especially of the Oedipus complex, and has connections with
the id that correspond to this genesis and are not conducted by way of
the ego. That is why the superego knows more about the id than the
ego [does].
The repressed instinctual impulses constantly attempt, by virtue of
their amounts of energy, to have a modifying effect on the course of the
reactions permitted by the ego with respect to their discharge. Currents
[Strmungen] continually pass over from the id to the ego by way of
associative limbs [Assoziationsglieder]. They give us the occasion, along-
side our dreams and parapraxes, for unimportant and important acts,
which are carried out by us under rationalised motivation, without our
being aware of the instinctual processes that operate behind them. The
result of this is that we are more lived by our id than we live according
to our ego.
A differentiation between ego and id, undertaken from the struc-
tural point of view, is not possible in the beginning of psychic devel-
opment, for ego and id are still undifferentiated in the earlier states of
development.
Freud defines psychoanalysis as the psychology of the id.
has uncovered the paths of and conditions for moral development, the
mechanisms of moral guilt-feeling, and the tendencies to self-punishment
(see morals [Moral], superego [ber-Ich]).
factors have the same effect with respect to the complemental series
[Ergnzungsreihe].
142
F 143
the idealised, honoured, real parents. Descent from lowly parents also
excuses ones own lowly and dirty wishes.
fausse reconnaissance
One designates as fausse reconnaissance the peculiar sensation, which
is felt in some moments and situations, in such a way as though one
has experienced exactly the same thing before and has already found
oneself in the same situation without ones consciousness succeeding
in clearly remembering the earlier [event] that presents itself thus. The
analysis of this phenomenon has shown that the event that is accompa-
nied by a fausse reconnaissance is, as a rule, connected to an unconscious
wish, an unconscious fantasy, or an unconscious intention. The feeling
of knowing [Bekanntheitsgefhl], which allows one to perceive a particu-
lar situation as having already been experienced, does not belong to the
current situation, but rather to the unconscious material that has been
activated directly or associatively by the current situation. The feeling
of knowing also has its justification, except for the fact that what allows
the current [situation] to appear known belongs to the unconscious; the
feeling of knowing is displaced away from the activated unconscious
onto what is current. One classifies the following as individual manifes-
tations of fausse reconnaissance:
dj vu, the feeling of having already seen something,
dj entendu, the feeling of having already heard something,
dj prouv, the feeling of having already felt something,
dj racont, the feeling of having already said something.
wishes that have emerged in a first situation for which the feeling of
knowing would actually have been appropriate. The dj vu here con-
tains an entelechy, a scene that develops from the unconscious wishful
scene into the currently experienced scene, with its symbolic or dis-
placed fulfilment. In the dj vu experience, consciousness creates for
itself a kind of sense organ for this entelechy.
Paul Federn (1928, p. 415) puts the phenomenon of dj vu in the
context of changes of cathexis at the boundaries of the ego. In his opin-
ion, dj vu comes about when a memory passes the ideational ego-
feeling-boundary [Vorstellungs-Ichgefhlsgrenze] very transiently as
an emerging experience, or [when] a perception [passes] the percep-
tive ego-feeling-boundary [Wahrnehmungs-Ichgefhlsgrenze], at first at
a moment when the boundary is devoid of narcissistic cathexis, and,
immediately thereafter, when it becomes narcissistically cathected.
From this arises, as with double-vision, as it were, the sensation of hav-
ing already been there, of the current experience having already been
experienced (see also ego-feeling [Ichgefhl]).
of the same sex. If the identification with the parent of the opposite
sex becomes prominent, and if it is the one which decisively influences
later relations, we then speak of faulty sexual identification. It expresses
itself especially in a feminine-passive attitude in the male, in an active-
masculine attitude in the female individual. The cause of such faulty
identification in boys is, as a rule, a strong castration anxiety; consider-
able anal disposition supports the possibility of faulty identification.
In girls, it is, first and foremost, a strong masculinity complex [Mnnli-
chkeitskomplex] (see separate entry) that leads to faulty sexual identifica-
tion. In the final analysis, the possibility of faulty identification resides
in congenital bisexuality [Bisexualitt] (see separate entry).
Fixierungspunkt
Fixierungsstelle
See fixation.
fliegen
see flying dream [Flugtraum].
Folie
is the French word for madness or insanity. The expression is also
applied to neurotic manifestations; thus, folie du doute means patho-
logical doubt about ones own accomplishments, folie de speculation
pathological rumination, etc.
freie Assoziation
freier Einfall
see association [Einfall].
early ego is in many ways not adapted to the strong rush of genital
stimulations and has to protect itself against them by means of those
defensive measures which easily harbour the possibility for later for-
mation of neurosis, especially through repression [Verdrngung] (see
separate entry). Sexual precocity, therefore, acts as a dispositional fac-
tor for the formation of neurosis.
Sexual precocity in children can appear by means of growths on the
pineal gland and the adrenal glands, such that boys produce semen at
the age of three to six and girls menstruate at the same age. In the proc-
ess, psychosexual cravings can be just the way they are with adults.
These rare occurrences of real sexual precocity are determined by inner
secretion of the growths on the above-mentioned glands.
Fu (foot; pied )
The foot is a frequent symbol for the penis. If the foot is elevated to
the exclusive sexual object in certain forms of fetishism, it regularly
signifies the missing penis of the woman.
G
164
G 165
water, and similar representations for giving birth). In this, as also in the
nannys fairy tale about the childrens lake, a dark presentiment about
a watery existence in the maternal womb probably plays a role. Passing
through narrow openings is also symbolic for being born.
According to a theory of Freuds, the most important residue of birth
is the affect of anxiety [Angst] (see separate entry). In its essential fea-
tures it represents a repetition of the birth trauma. The name anxiety
is already connected to the situation of the embryo during birth in
the Latin angustiae = narrowness in the feeling of being oppressed, of
constriction, of the pressing-paralysing. The shortness of breath, rapid
heartbeat, heightened intestinal function in the affect of anxiety are
reproduced from the state of birth. Therein, the repetition of the birth-
traumatic impression occurs in the affect of anxiety, either from the
fact that great incursions of stimuli likewise cause an economic distur-
bance, as would be caused by birth (actual anxiety [Aktualangst]), or,
conversely, the birth-traumatic impressions are repeated in the affect of
anxiety as a warning of the danger of such a disturbance (signal anxiety
[Signalangst]). In the process, the connection between birth and anxiety
has already been formally established, so that it also exists [in situa-
tions] where the child has partially been spared the experience of birth
itself through caesarian section of the mother.
The intimate relationship between the affect of anxiety, especially
important in the neurotic symptom, and the trauma of birth caused
Otto Rank to construct the theory that the neurotic symptom is essen-
tially a reproduction of the trauma of birth; in his opinion, an attempt
is made to overcome the trauma of birth after the fact [nachtrglich].
Neurotic anxiety, especially, can be conceived of as deferred abreaction
of the birth trauma. Rank (1924) modified his analytic technique accord-
ing to his theory of the trauma of birth by also conceiving of analytic
treatment as rebirth and the final overcoming of the birth trauma. In
Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety (1926d), Freud rejected Ranks theory
as being insufficiently founded: it contributes nothing certain to the
solution of the problem of neurosis.
Birth is also of truly great significance for the one who gives birth.
Aside from the psychic reactions to carrying the child, the act of giving
birth itself can certainly take place with erotogenic-masochistic experi-
ences of pleasure; in fact, Helene Deutsch (1925) is even of the opinion
that it is the high-point of masochistic gratification, an orgy of maso-
chistic instinctual tendencies, a continuation and consummation of the
G 167
sexual act, which for the woman, is inaugurated in coitus, [but it is]
only completed in the act of giving birth.
The process of birth is of all-consuming interest for childhood sexual
investigation. The question about where the child comes from is at the
centre of the complex of questioning that preoccupies children between
the third and fifth year of life. To the extent that children are not enlight-
ened, they form theories about the manner of birth. Corresponding to
the strong anal sexual component in this period and in consequence
of his deficient anatomical knowledge of the female genital, especially
on account of his ignorance of the birth canal (vagina), the child can
conceive of birth from the womans belly as nothing other than the
emptying of its own excrements through the intestines and anus. Psy-
choanalysis speaks of a cloacal theory of birth, and every child develops
this theory during a certain time period. This theory is later replaced
by others, such as by the idea that the child emerges from the mothers
open navel, or out of the region between the breasts; the mothers belly
is frequently imagined as being cut open, so that the child leaves the
mothers body through the wound, like Little Red Riding Hood or the
Geislein [=goat, from the fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Goats]
leaves the body of the wolf. The true state of affairs is learned relatively
late, usually not before puberty.
and their possibility of being currently cathected by the fact that they
are repeated in experience, either in affective reactions or by means
of the active restoration of earlier constellations or earlier relations of
feeling [Gefhlsbeziehungen] and the like. In such types of reproduction,
the original experience is no longer accessible, at least [not] in impor-
tant affective portions of conscious memory. The field of memory is
extended very significantly through recognition of the reproduction of
experiences by repeating and acting out [agieren] (see separate entry).
Psychoanalysis speaks of unconscious memory with regard to this type
of reproduction without conscious remembering. If the engrams of
experience [Erlebnisengramme] that are kept back from conscious mem-
ory by resistances, which express themselves by repetition, are brought
to conscious memory by means of psychoanalytic procedure, then they
lose the capability of [exercising] other types of reproduction. The effect
of psychoanalytic therapy is, in part, based on this.
dream can one neglect to examine whether this element brings itself or
its opposite to representation. This has its basis, especially, in the archaic
character of the language of dreams. The original formation of concepts
probably generally came about by way of comparison with something
else, especially with its opposite, as, for instance, the idea big was
formed in small, and vice versa. The opposite, therefore, is essen-
tially included in the original; the oldest languages also have numerous
expressions with antithetical double meaning (see antithetical sense of
primal words [Gegensinn der Urworte]). Antitheses therefore necessarily
belong to one another; they are expressed jointly in primitive systems
of expression. The mutual representation of opposites according to the
separation of opposites is, then, readily understandable as a recourse to
an earlier stage of development in the system of expression.
Representation by means of the opposite also serves distortion and
contributes substantially to the incomprehensibility of, for instance, a
manifest dream image or a neurotic symptom.
himself and to master them; his own analysis is, for this reason alone,
an unconditional requirement for the analyst.
primitive ascribes to the dead, has as a consequence the fact that he,
too, will not go completely to ruin in death but will, as a spirit, elude
annihilation through death, at least partially. The incomprehensible
idea of the annihilation of ones own existence is thus avoided through
the belief in spirits.
Genitale
is the Latin designation for the sexual apparatus.
and operates as the central pleasure organ for carrying out sexual
excitations (see also genital primacy [Genitalprimat]). Genitality is the
final aim of sexual development as the normal form of the sexuality
of the adult. This aim is already achieved in significant aspects in the
course of development of infantile sexuality. In the fourth to the fifth
year of life, the genital normally becomes the complete centre of sexual
interests, in that the strongest pleasure-stimulus proceeds from it and
entices one to genital onanism. This is the time of the Oedipus complex
(see separate entry), whose sexual strivings are connected to the genital
as a terminal organ [Erfolgsorgan] of the body.
To be sure, the genitality of the child differs significantly from the
genitality of the adult in the process. In the infantile genital phase,
there is no distinct end pleasure [Endlust] (see separate entry); the
sexual experiences of pleasure have much more of the character of
pure fore-pleasure. The second important distinguishing feature [of
infantile genitality] in comparison with the genitality of the adult is
that, for both sexes, only the phallic organ, in other words, the penis
for the boy, the clitoris for the girl, comes into play as the organ of
pleasure, whereas the vagina remains still undiscovered, and the sen-
sations of pleasure that emanate from this region in the adult woman
are not yet, or rudimentarily, present. Infantile genitality is therefore
also designated as the phallic phase, stage, or organisation. The high
narcissistic valuation of the phallic organ at the stage of infantile
genitality leads to the most diverse reactions to the discovery of the
female genders lack of a penis, such as, in the boy, to strong cas-
tration anxiety [Kastrationsangst] (see separate entry), when the dis-
covery coincides with the threats made in connection with it, then
later on [it leads] to disdain for the female sex and to the inclina-
tion towards homosexuality; in the girl [it leads] to the denial of the
lack of a penis in the masculinity complex [Mnnlichkeitskomplex] (see
separate entry), or to strong feelings of inferiority, or to the turn into
the passive-female position, whereby preparation is made for nor-
mal development. In the boy, infantile genitality is broken off rather
suddenly and brusquely by castration anxiety; with its termination,
the Oedipus complex also perishes, and the latency period sets in.
In the girl, the active phallic strivings are normally replaced by pas-
sive ones under the influence of the discovery of the lack of a penis;
these, to be sure, also remain connected to the clitoris to the greatest
extent. Infantile genitality, and along with it, the Oedipus complex,
184 T H E F I R S T D I C T I O N A RY O F P S Y C H OA N A LY S I S
are slowly given up in the girl; the onset of the latency period takes
place more gradually than with the boy.
Genital strivings set in again with the onset of puberty. What goes
along with the genitality of the adult, in basic contrast to infantile
genitality, is the experience of end-pleasure [Endlust] in the orgasm (see
separate entry). But what also goes along with normal genitality of the
adult is the full acknowledgement of the genital of the opposite sex and
the desire for it as an adequate object for fulfilling ones own strivings
for genital pleasure.
Genitality has models and preliminary stages in early phases of the
development of sexuality; for instance, the conception that the child
forms about the sexual function of the penis is tied to the one that
it acquired in the oral phase with regard to the nipple, whereby the
vagina is perceived as analogous to the oral cavity; from the anal phase,
the conception of the turd stimulating the mucous membrane of the
anus is transferred to the penis in the vagina. When these models and
preliminary stages encroach upon genitality all too much and permeate
it with their instinctual qualities and mechanisms, then genitality can
be disturbed, especially as a result of the egos disinclination towards
these satisfactions, which were once affirmed, but [were] forbidden in
the course of development.
The specific disturbances of genitality are impotence and frigidity.
The most important cause of these neuroses of inhibition is anxiety, to
wit, mostly in the form of castration anxiety [Kastrationsangst] (see sepa-
rate entry).
the sexual excitation of the other erotogenic zones to increase its own
desire for satisfaction. The sexual excitation of the remaining erotogenic
zones also experiences its discharge in the genital orgasm. In the pri-
macy of the genital zone, the genital apparatus thereby becomes the
complete terminal organ [Erfolgsorgan] of the sexual instinct. In no other
level of development of sexuality, not in the oral, in the anal, or in the
urethral phase, is the subordination of the other erotogenic zones under
the zone of genital primacy so complete as in genital primacy. Genital
primacy is already achieved by way of preliminary stages in the course
of development of infantile sexuality; it is established in the fourth to
the fifth year of life. The achievement of genital primacy is prototypical
and decisive for the development of genital sexuality in the adult. For
the differences between genital primacy in the child and in the adult,
see genitality [Genitalitt].
connected with a slight raising of the upper lip. In the process, they
look as though they were constantly inhaling odours through the nose.
Olfactory erotism is developed to a particular extent in instances of
strong anal disposition.
Olfactory erotism plays an important role in nasal, or respiratory,
introjection [Introjektion] (see separate entry).
it, or the fear of the punitive measures that are to be expected, in the
childs imagination, as a consequence of sexual acts, are regularly hid-
den behind a strong fear of venereal diseases. The exaggerated fear
of venereal diseases can also be an expression of the defence against
the unconscious wish to be impregnated. Infection and conception are
thereby equated.
with respect to the child. Human beings continuous need for protection
from the powerful forces of nature and the intensity and persistence of
the unconscious relation to the father contribute mightily to the belief
in God.
With regard to the origin of primitive peoples belief in God, Freud
constructed the theory that it developed from the totem of primitives,
which likewise represents a substitute for the father and, accordingly, is
revered as an ancestor and is also feared after his death (see totemism
[Totemismus]). The father regains his human character in the form of
God-representation that followed totemism. The elevation to godhood
simultaneously signifies an atonement for the primal deed against the
father (see primal horde [Urhorde]). Guilt-feeling towards the primal
father plays an essential role in his deification.
the only thing that is valuable by clouding our judgment in its favour
through the positive affects that we direct towards the loved object and
by making us blind to its deficiencies and errors. From the libidinal basis
for overestimating the objects in [the state of] being in love, we can con-
clude that the self-overestimation on which megalomania is grounded
must have libidinal causes. Psychoanalytic investigations have shown
that the essential changes in the libidinal economy in those psychoses
in which megalomania typically appears consist in the fact that libido
is withdrawn from the objects and directed at the ego. This abnormal
heightening of narcissistic cathexis of the ego is the libidinal basis for
the pathological self-overestimation that megalomania represents.
Since the pathological narcissistic ego-cathexis of psychoses represents
a regression to the state of infantile narcissism, one must expect that
high self-estimation and megalomania can also be found in children.
That is, in fact, the case.
The magical thinking of the child (see magic [Magie]), his belief in
the omnipotence of thoughts [Allmacht der Gedanken] (see separate
entry) and in the magical power of words are the expression of overes-
timation of the self by virtue of the libidinal cathexis of the childs ego.
In the primitive, who represents, psychologically, the infantile level of
human development, we find the same high, libidinal cathexis of the
ego and the grandiose ideas that correspond to it.
EPILOGUE
203
204 T R A N S C R I P T O F A N I N T E RV I E W W I T H R I C H A R D S T E R BA
again, and the last meeting was 1932. Then I saw him
once or twice. More. Yeah, I saw him more often when
I became the librarian of the Vienna Psychoanalytic
Institute.
dr. langford: Oh, is that right?
dr. sterba: Yeah. And then Freud went with me to his library and
gave us books and so on. I saw him privately. Once it
was very amusing. Out of a book fell something, the
announcement of his office, of the opening of his office
in 1891. I said, Can I have that, Professor? He said,
Well, yes, take it. So I have it here, and theres only
one other one, a unique document. So. Because Ernst
Freud has another one, which is now in the museum
in the Maresfield Gardens in London.
dr. langford: During this time, who were the individualsyou
mentioned Federn and certain otherswho were
those that you found yourself either working with
or in close association with or deriving the greatest
stimulation from within the area of psychoanalysis?
Obviously, wed like to get into the other areas of your
life as well, as we go along.
dr. sterba: It was originally very much Wilhelm Reich. Wilhelm
Reich conducted the technical seminar.
dr. langford: In the institute?
dr. sterba: In the institute. He was a brilliant clinician. I never
heard anybody summarise a case so brilliantly as he
did. Of course, he gradually became more and more
interested in communism and left the society, went to
Berlin and so on, but the greatest stimulation I derived
from him and when I presented my first case report,
Helene Deutsch asked me, she would like to control a
case of mine because she found the report was so good.
So I had maybe ten supervisions with Helene Deutsch.
I had altogether maybe twenty-five supervisions and
then Helene Deutsch, who was the director of the in-
stitute, said, I think its time for you to swim alone. If
you havent learned it up till now, youll never learn it
and you shouldnt be told what to do and what to see.
You should find out for yourself. And I think it was
T R A N S C R I P T O F A N I N T E RV I E W W I T H R I C H A R D S T E R BA 209
dr. sterba: She was involved in a very beautiful edition and she
was on the staff of a marvellous director, only he spent
too much money.
dr. langford: Then when were you married? In what year?
dr. sterba: We married in 1926.
dr. langford: In 26. I see. And is she
dr. sterba: Shortly before I graduated.
dr. langford: I see. She at this time was already deeply involved in
her own analytic work and training.
dr. sterba: She was analysed by Alfred Freiherr von Winterstein,
a PhD. who was an early pupil of Freuds and we at-
tended the seminars together and so on. We estab-
lished a home and analytic life together.
dr. langford: Now, then, during these years, really your analytic ca-
reer in Vienna would have been from 1924, 24, along
in there. You took the job until 1938, and this obviously
had to do with the upheaval.
dr. sterba: Yeah, when Hitler came in, three days later I left.
I was the first analyst to leave Vienna with my family,
because I didnt want to be under the Nazis.
dr. langford: I see. And you had children. You had your children at
this point.
dr. sterba: Yeah, and fortunately our Viennese housekeeper came
along with us formally. I think you knew her. And she
died in the meantime. She had retired to Vienna. But
it was very fortunate because we could travel and do
all kind of things. We fled to Switzerland, and stayed
there for almost a year.
dr. langford: You lived in Switzerland for a year before coming to
the United States?
dr. sterba: Yeah, until we got the visa.
dr. langford: I see.
dr. sterba: First in Basel and then in Ascona, near Locarno on the
Lago Maggiore and it was just beautiful, if it were not
for the tremendous pressure.
dr. langford: Yeah, it would have been a lovely sojourn.
dr. sterba: It was just marvellous. Five patients from Vienna came
with me. And four of my patients came to Detroit.
dr. langford: You dont mean it!
T R A N S C R I P T O F A N I N T E RV I E W W I T H R I C H A R D S T E R BA 211
dr. sterba: No, it was two from Switzerland, two from Holland,
and for Mrs. Sterba, a French girl.
dr. langford: I see. Just continued to
dr. sterba: So when we came here we had not to ask
dr. langford: Beginning practice. Now, how did you happen to
choose Detroit?
dr. sterba: It was so that Fritz Redl was here, who was my
analysand in Vienna, and [John] Dorsey, whom I knew
from Vienna who had been in analysis with Freud.
There were approximately ten persons in Detroit who
got their training in Chicago and psychiatrists, and
tried to commute and when we came, we could estab-
lish a [] institute here, and they didnt have. So the
field was made for us, so they say and it was the easi-
est to start, and I dont regret it.
dr. langford: Marvellous. Now, this was in many respects, however,
while there was apparently a society here at this time,
and they were a study group
dr. sterba: Yes, it needed ten members. Ten full members.
dr. langford: To become a society.
dr. sterba: And we had to scratch them together with Cleveland.
There was Finlayson [?] and Uhlich and one man
from Cincinnati, I forgot his name now. So we got ten
together
dr. langford: I see. All together to establish a society and then
beginning training.
dr. sterba: Beginning training, yeah. But I was immediately made
a training analyst, and Mrs. Sterba too, at the Chicago
Institute.
dr. langford: I see. Then under that [sic] auspices it then became an
independent institute fairly shortly thereafter.
dr. sterba: Yeah. Fairly shortly. Happel was here. Clara Happel.
dr. langford: Clara Happel. Right.
dr. sterba: So we had four training analysts.
dr. langford: At that time. Now, how did your children take the
transition? They were still quite young at this time.
dr. sterba: Monica was four and a half or five. Five. Verena was
one and a half. I just had the youngest. And Monica
had in the beginning an awfully hard time. She was
212 T R A N S C R I P T O F A N I N T E RV I E W W I T H R I C H A R D S T E R BA
only shows that hes a human being and not one of the
best quality.
dr. langford: Now, of course your wife shared with you your inter-
est in music, obviously, as well as many of your other
interests.
dr. sterba: Yes, she has a doctorate in musicology.
dr. langford: Right. And when did your career as a musiciannot
career, but, well, in almost a career
dr. sterba: That was, I startedit is strange how we take our mod-
els when we in the second grade of grade school,
our teacher accompanied our singing lessons with a
violin. I liked it so much that I asked my mother to
take violin lessons. I had violin lessons and from then
on started, until today. I had great teachers: [names
teachers], Rudolf Kolisch, and Checzik [spelling un-
certain] in Vienna, so I am a pretty accomplished
musician. But I still practise two or three hours a day
if I can get to it.
dr. langford: I think that those who know you as a musician would
very much have thought this could have been your ca-
reer.
dr. sterba: I would think the musicians will think he might be
hes not a very good musician but he might be a good
analyst, and the analysts think he might be a good
musician. [Laughs.] But its so that I cannot play with
many dilettantes. I play with professionalsstring
quartets, for example. And professionals like to play
with me. When Rudolf Serkin is around here, we al-
ways play somehow together.
dr. langford: Now, here again, I think that part of your personal life
and your social life and your closest friends must be
drawn also from the world of music, those who share
this.
dr. sterba: Well, we do this only for general cultural interest. My
best friend who died a few years ago was a famous
publisher, Kurt Wolff. He was the first one who pub-
lished Kafka and published our Beethoven book also.
He was a personal friend of Thomas Mann and of
Andre Gide and so on. So intellectual centres [sic] and
T R A N S C R I P T O F A N I N T E RV I E W W I T H R I C H A R D S T E R BA 215
dr. langford: Now how often do you get back to Europe? It must be
with a fair degree of regularity.
dr. sterba: At least once a year.
dr. langford: Usually once a year, or more often at times. Give
a paper
dr. sterba: Recently I gave a paper in Hamburg.
dr. langford: I would think that with your origins therehad you
been to the United States before?
dr. sterba: No. No.
dr. langford: So really when you came here to live at the time of the
war, it was your first experience?
dr. sterba: My first experience, except that I knew a lot of it from
my patients.
dr. langford: Exactly. But it hadnt been a point where you vaca-
tioned here or come before?
dr. sterba: No. We were invited 1929 to come to Boston and in
1934 again but while we are discussed [sic] with Anna
Freud, and her father wants to have some group to
stay together as long as he is there.
dr. langford: [Hanns] Sachs came before the war, did he?
dr. sterba: Yes. He came before the war. He came there approxi-
mately 1928.
dr. langford: Nineteen twenty-eight, I see. Which would have been
one of the enticements to come, that there was a begin-
ning group.
dr. sterba: Helene Deutsch came before the war.
dr. langford: So that the, really the time of the war was not the main
reason for many people coming. There were many
who came
dr. sterba: There were already those who settled earlier. Nunberg
was considering it at the time.
dr. langford: At the time, and again, not with the threat of the up-
heaval in Europe so much as the opportunity.
dr. sterba: Well, we all feared it. I mean, we all felt that it was
around the corner.
dr. langford: For some time it had been.
dr. sterba: And after. I remember when Thomas Mann was
there and gave on Freuds eightieth birthday in 1936,
gave a wonderful paper in Vienna: Freud and the
T R A N S C R I P T O F A N I N T E RV I E W W I T H R I C H A R D S T E R BA 217
225
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