The organizing of psychoanalysis in Britain

We are looking deeper than Freud … On the departure from the primacy of the sexual in Berlin and London between 1920 and 1925

Between 1920 and 1925 a shift occurred in psychoanalytic theory that related primarily to the status of aggression. The author shows which authors in Berlin, Amsterdam and London participated in this change and to what extent they prepared the ground for the reception of Melanie Klein, who developed in her analyses of children a technique that applied pre-eminently to the perception and interpretation of aggression. The way in which Freud distanced himself from this departure from the primacy of the sexual is described, as well as the waning importance of his perspective following the establishment of the Institutes in Berlin and London.

BLOTS AND ALL: A HISTORY OF THE RORSCHACH INK BLOT TEST IN BRITAIN

Despite the easily recognizable nature of the Rorschach ink blot test very little is known about the history of the test in Britain. We attend to the oft-ignored history of the Rorschach test in Britain and compare it to its history in the US. Prior to the Second World War, Rorschach testing in Britain had attracted advocates and critiques. Afterward, the British Rorschach Forum, a network with a high proportion of women, developed around the Tavistock Institute in London and The Rorschach Newsletter. In 1968, the International Rorschach Congress was held in London but soon after the group became less exclusive, and fell into decline. A comparative account of the Rorschach in Britain demonstrates how different national institutions invested in the 'projective hypothesis' according to the influence of psychoanalysis, the adoption of a nationalized health system, and the social positioning of 'others' throughout the twentieth century. In comparing and contrasting the history of the Rorschach in Britain and the US, we decentralize and particularize the history of North American Psychology.