VIII.

International Acceptance

Increasing recognition of the psychoanalytic movement made possible the formation in 1910 of a worldwide organization called the International Psychoanalytic Association. As the movement spread, gaining new adherents throughout Europe and the United States, Freud was troubled by the dissension that arose among members of his original circle. Most disturbing were the defections from the group of Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung, each of whom developed a different theoretical basis for disagreement with Freud’s emphasis on the sexual origin of neurosis. Freud met these setbacks by developing further his basic concepts and by elaborating his own views in many publications and lectures.

After the onset of World War I Freud devoted little time to clinical observation and concentrated on the application of his theories to the interpretation of religion, mythology, art, and literature. In 1923 he was stricken with cancer of the jaw, which necessitated constant, painful treatment in addition to many surgical operations. Despite his physical suffering he continued his literary activity for the next 16 years, writing mostly on cultural and philosophical problems.

His contributions included The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1902), Jokes and Their Relationship to the Unconscious (1905), Three Essays on Sexuality (1905), Totem and Taboo (1913), New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1933), in which he added further revisions to his theory, The Ego and the Id (1923), and Moses and Monotheism (1939).

Once again threatened with religious persecution, renewed as a result of the German annexation of Austria in 1938, Freud escaped with his family to England. He died in London on September 23, 1939.

Freud’s ideas have stood the test of time. They are revisited by other schools of psychology and neuroscience as these various disciplines attempt to refine our still uncertain understanding of human mental processes. Despite their opposition, Adler and Jung and other successors further studied and modified many of his concepts. These concepts are fundamental to so many of the variants of psychoanalysis now in existence, and have evolved with it.