One of the most significant moments of the early years in the history of
Psycho-Analysis was the establishment of the several local societies
and of the International Association. The Vienna Psycho-Analytic Society
in particular was even more interesting, not only because of the active
participation of Freud, but because they kept a somewhat accurate
record of their discussions. These records have been published as the 4
volumes of the Minutes of the Vienna Psycho-Analytic Society. I plan to
make some comments on each volume, pointing some interesting texts they
might contain.
The first volume contains, in addition to the minutes of the period from
1906 to 1908, an excellent introduction by Herman Nunberg that clearly
shows the importance of these minutes to the study of the history of
psychoanalytic thought of the early years. This section is followed by a
brief presentation of the participants of the society, which is very
useful since some of them are completely unknown.
Right on the beginning of the book we have Rank's presentations on the incest theme in literature. The discussions lasted for three weeks and took form on his huge book on incest (The Incest Theme in Literature and Legend). Rank was an expert in this kind of analysis of myths, and not only the discussion of his text, but also of the mentioned book is fascinating and a must read.
Another point of interest is to follow Adler's presentations throughout the period. We can see how he increasingly turns away from psychoanalysis and how the members of the society reacted to his theories and hypotheses.
In addition to the works of the most known psychoanalysts, there is also some good presentations from others. For example Max Graf's text titled "Methodology of the Psychology of Poets". The minutes of this one are particularly detailed since they contain the manuscript presented and makes this a very enriching experience.
I might go on and talk about some other author or theme, but I believe
that this short comment might be just enough for those who were
interested in the Minutes to try and read those great books. I'll post
in the future more on the others volumes.
