Peter Swales Papers, 1967 - 1989

Summary

Creator:
Swales, Peter J.
Abstract:
The Peter J. Swales Papers contain Swales' notes, correspondence and related material he used in his Freud studies based on extensive archival research. The collection has 4 series: Anna von Lieben, Katharina, Research Correspondence, and Writings and Publications.
Extent:
4 boxes 1.46 linear feet
Language:
English German

Background

Scope and content:

The Peter J. Swales Papers contain Swales' notes, correspondence and related material he used in his Freud studies based on extensive archival research. There are 4 series in this collection.

Anna von Lieben was Freud's leading patient suffering from hysteria symptoms whom he treated, and from close observation and scientific study of her states and symptoms, he formulated his therapeutic and theoretical views of psychoanalysis. In Freud's notes and literature, she is known as Frau Cicilie M. He began treating her in either 1888 or 1889 under the supervision of his mentor, Josef Breuer, and completed his treatment in the mid-1890's, several years before her death. All in all she was affected with hysteria for approximately thirty years. He referred to Anna von Lieben as his teacher, his prima donna. Under his guidance, she relived the many traumas of her past life. Freud developed a number of psychoanalytic techniques during his many hours of treating Anna von Lieben on a regular basis. Under the "tutelage" of his patient, Freud came to realize with full force the existence and power of what he inferred to be unconscious processes. Anna von Lieben provided numerous classical instances of hysterical conversion as well as stimulated him to develop his earliest insights into the language of symbolism. Freud's care of this patient and of others led to Josef Breuer and Freud's Studies on Hysteria. Contained in this series is research material Swales used in his study of Anna von Lieben and published in 1986: Freud, his teacher, and the birth of psychoanalysis. In Freud Appraisals and Reappraisals--Contributions to Freud Studies, vol. 1, ed. Paul E. Stepansky. Hillsdale, N.J.; The Analytic Press. There is a photocopy of Anna von Lieben's book of poetry, Swales' notes about her, filing cards from two Austrian libraries on the Lieben, Tedesko and de Worms families and a chronology of the patient that Swales prepared. There is also Swales' source material consisting of rough research notes and a photocopy of information about the de Worms family and a photocopy of a photograph of Anna von Lieben, in addition to unpublished memoirs of Anna von Lieben's daughter, Henriette. Other material includes contemporary and photocopies of old correspondence with Lieben family members and with libraries, and a catalog of an art exhibit featuring the work of Anna von Lieben's granddaughter. Some of the material in this series is written in German.

Katharina is the name given by Freud to another of his earliest patients, Aurelia Kranich. He encountered her only briefly in 1893, but from her story of her experience from which she became nervously ill, Freud was able to demonstrate how a psychological analysis of an hysterical patient could be accomplished without the use of hypnotism. He replaced this method with free association. The case of Katharina also helped him intimate his conviction as to the importance of mnemonic traumas of a specifically sexual kind. Swales reports his findings in Freud, Katharina, and the first 'wild analysis'. In Freud Appraisals and Reappraisals Contributions to Freud Studies, vol. 3, ed. Paul E. Stepansky. Hillsdale, N.J.: The Analytic Press, 1988. The material relating to Katharina consists of Swales' notes, a computer printout in German, and a partial English translation, and archival and other source material including genealogical charts, correspondence, and postcards and reproductions of photographs. There are also contemporary published articles Swales incorporated in his publication, as well as a draft of the lecture about Katharina he presented to the History of Psychiatry Section at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. An unedited manuscript of his article completes the series. Some material in this series is written in German.

Research Correspondence refers to Swales' correspondence and related material with the Library of Congress, Mr. Mark Paterson of Sigmund Freud Copyrights, Dr. Kurt Eissler and Dr. Jeffrey Masson of the Sigmund Freud Archives, Anna Freud, and one or two other individuals. This correspondence describes the initial collaboration in terms of exchange of information between Jeffrey Masson and Peter Swales on alternative anti-establishment views on the personal life and some theories of Freud, and a few years later, the termination of the relationship between Masson and Swales. The correspondence takes place between 1979-1982. Janet Malcolm wrote a series of articles detailing the complex series of events in The New Yorker magazine, later published as a book entitled In the Freud Archives, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1984. The final folder in this series is a legal order from California between Masson and The New Yorker granting a summary judgment in a court case, 1987.

Writings and publications: This series contains materials on Swales' history of psychiatry seminar presentations and several publications.

Biographical / historical:

Peter J. Swales researched the early life and work of Sigmund Freud and the origins of psychoanalysis. Born in 1948 in Pembrokeshire, Wales, Swales emigrated to the United States in 1972 and his involvement with Freud began in 1973 when he negotiated the first North American publication of Freud's early papers on the drug cocaine and assisted in the preparation of an anthology of these and related writings. Swales authored a series of articles in which the intellectual history of analysis is considered in the context of reconstructed historical and biographical circumstances.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Peter Swales, 1984 and 1988.

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Written permission must be obtained from the Oskar Diethelm Library and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Location of this collection:
DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy and the Arts
Weill Cornell Medical College
525 East 68th Street, Box 140
New York, NY 10065, United States
Link to repository site
Contact:
212-746-3728