[Psychoanalysis during the Nazi era. Contemporary consequences of a historical controversy: the Wilhelm Reich "case"]

The paper sheds light on the extent of collaboration between the pre-World War II German Psychoanalytic Society (DPG) and the Nazi regime. This is shown by the story of the expulsion of Wilhelm Reich from membership in the DPG, at Freud's own bid. A leading German psychoanalyst, Carl Müller-Braunschweig, published the paper "Psychoanalysis and Weltanschauung" in the fanatically "national" (so-called "völkisch") Nazi propaganda organ Reichswart in 1993 following consultations with officials of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) who endorsed these policies. This paper by Müller-Braunschweig was used both to prevent the possible outlawing of psychoanalysis by the Nazis and to deny official DPG support to Wilhelm Reich and the group of leftist-oriented IPA analysts who joined forces with him in opposing Nazi ideology. The paper concludes with examples from post-1945 historiography showing how the exclusion of Reich and the related DPG/IPA compromise and "appeasement" policy were either ignored or disclaimed.