James Jackson Putnam and Psychoanalysis: Letters Between Putnam and Sigmund Freud, Ernest Jones, William James, Sandor Ferenczi, and Morton Prince, 1877-1917

Abstract

James Jackson Putnam, when he became fully aware of psychoanalysis, was a 63-year-old Boston physician, well established, and a professor of neurology at Harvard. It is fascinating to read in this correspondence with Freud how Putnam's Yankee fairness, grown out of a religious background, tried to deal with Freud's realism, scientific orientation, and daring revolutionary spirit. Freud was at all times aware that Putnam was important for psychoanalysis in America. The letters show little or nothing of Freud's antagonism or ambivalence towards America. Letters of philosophy and religion form much of this correspondence, extending from 1906 to a last communication during the war in 1917. Putnam always wrote in English, Freud always in German. As the correspondence progressed, Freud's deepening disillusion and stoicism contrasts more and more with Putnam's New England optimism. It also becomes clear how much Putnam encouraged Freud's interest in the analysis of conscience, religion, and philosophy.