[The relation between political orientation and analytical work, discussed on the basis of Edith Jacobson Berlin's...

The author discusses the context of the left-wing Freudians in whose circles Edith Jacobson moved in Germany. Her psychoanalytical papers, written and published prior to her emigration, are examined as to whether at all or in which way they are marked by the >>political<< psychoanalysis as represented by W. Reich, O. Fenichel and others. In contrast ot Reich, Jacobson was careful about voicing explicit comments on society and its institutions, even before 1933. She expressed her political opinions in an implicit and hidden way, namely in her clinical work. In particular she emphasized the role of external reality, summed up in the so-called >>original formula of neurosis<< according to which neurotic disorder results primarily from a conflict between drive and social reality rather than from inner conflict. Jacobson and her like minded friends saw this view as an expression of their political attitude, directed both against certain aspects of Freud's (and A. Freud's) theories, e.g. primary masochism, and the emerging Kleinian school. At the same time it was a point of agreement between the left-wing Freudians and their Viennese colleagues. The author highlights the fact that, and explains the reasons why, we no longer perceive the hidden political dimension in the papers of Jacobson (or in those of Fenichel, Gero and others).