What sort of person was Freud? Was he a nice guy?

Abstract

From the translator

Paul Roazen is a well-known American-Canadian political scientist, historian of philosophy and psychology, author of more than a dozen monographs and many articles, and publisher of materials on the history of the psychoanalytic movement and the biography of Sigmund Freud in the West. Roazen was the professor of social and political sciences, has taught at Harvard, Oxford, Chicago, Cambridge (USA), and Toronto (Canada) universities.

The content of this article is closely related to the most famous book by P. Rosen published in our country, "Freud and His Followers" (1976; translated by V. Starovoitov (2005)).

Anna Freud gave herself Roazen an access to the archives of the British Psychoanalytic Institute. Rosen touches on and explores the unsightly and rather painful aspects of Freud's personal and scientific biography, as well as the relations between the psychoanalysts in his immediate circle. Practically the same is devoted to this article, on the basis of which P. Rosen made several reports at international conferences, one of which I listened to and received written permission to translate. The author's approach to the emergence of psychoanalysis and the inclusion of world philosophical and political sources, even legal thought, among his sources is also innovative.

I met Paul at the 41st Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association in Chile in 1999, met him later abroad, corresponded with him, received writings from him, and published a memoir of my meetings with him. In the circles of Western psychoanalysts, P. Rosen had a reputation as a "counterverse" psychoanalytic author, of course, due to his lack of awe before the iconic figures of psychoanalysis, including Freud himself. In my memory, Paul remained a bright, harmonious, intellectually charming man, open to communication, with a sincere interest in any interlocutor. I will always remember him.