ZENTRALBLATT FÜR PSYCHOANALYSE

In the wake of the Jahrbuch für Psychoanalyse, the psychoanalytic movement published its first monthly periodical, the Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse (Central review of psychoanalysis) in 1911. For the first two years Freud was the editor and Wilhelm Stekel was the chief editor. Whereas the Jahrbuch addressed a specialist readership close to psychoanalysis and tended to reflect the specificity and specialization of clinical and theoretical psychoanalysis, the Zentralblatt had a more didactic mission. It tried on the one hand to afford a view of the rapidly growing wave of analytic literature and, on the other, to provide a forum for shorter works that were more accessible for the general public. Alongside more strictly medico-psychological articles, the Zentralblatt focused as well on interdisciplinary approaches involving history, literature, esthetics, teaching, and popular culture. The periodical addressed itself specifically to a lay readership both as the final consumer of psychoanalytic progress and as the author, thus becoming a witness to the "progress" of psychoanalytic knowledge.

The new periodical was introduced with a contribution by Freud, "The Future Prospects of Psycho-Analytic Therapy" (1910d). A considerable amount of space was reserved for brief observations in the form of examples, for the interpretation of dreams, parapraxes, and symptoms resulting from the "psychoanalysis workshop." In addition to providing a large space for reviews, intended as a guide to the mass of psychoanalytic publications, the Zentralblatt also provided the earliest information on psychoanalytic associations and their calendars of activities, beginning with the report on the first private psychoanalytic meeting held in Salzburg on April, 27, 1908.

After 1912 the Zentralblatt also contained the "correspondence sheet" (Korrespondenzblatt ), previously reserved exclusively for members of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), and thus became its official organ. This official role provoked a conflict in 1912 between the association and the editor, Wilhelm Stekel: Freud withdrew as editor in November 1912 and Stekel, having disagreed with the master concerning the choice of Viktor Tausk to replace him, took single-handed control of the position. That same year saw the founding of a new periodical, Imago, which acted as an alternative spokesperson for psychoanalysis.

As a result of this tension the IPA suspended its official collaboration with the Zentralblatt and in 1913 it founded its own publication, the Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, which resumed publication of the "correspondence sheets." Following this new configuration of the market for psychoanalytic publications, the Zentralblatt suspended its activity in 1914.

Lydia Marinelli

See also: Abraham, Karl; Adler, Alfred; Internationale Zeitschrift für (ärtzliche) Psychoanalyse ; Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse ; Stekel, Wilhelm.

Source Citation

Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse. Medizinische Monatsschrift für Seelenkunde, Wiesbaden, J. F. Bergmann, 1910/11-1914 (Central review of psychoanalysis, medical monthly for psychology).

Bibliography

Freud, Sigmund, and Jones, Ernest. (1993 [1908-39]). The complete correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Ernest Jones, 1908-1939, R.A. Paskauskas (Ed.), London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Stekel, Wilhelm. (1950). The autobiography of Wilhelm Stekel. The life story of a pioneer psychoanalyst. New York: Liveright.