Scope and Content Note
The papers of Paul Federn (1871-1950) span the years 1864-1975, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1895-1950. The collection includes correspondence from many early practitioners of psychoanalysis documenting the last three decades of Federn’s career. The papers are in German and English and are organized in the following series: Correspondence , Case File , Speeches and Writings , Miscellany , and Addition .
The Correspondence series is arranged in family and general groupings. Family correspondence includes letters exchanged between family members and close friends dating chiefly from the 1890s to the 1920s. Frequent correspondents include Federn’s wife, Wilma Bauer Federn, and his parents Solomon, a Viennese physician, and Ernestine Federn. General correspondence is comprised primarily of incoming letters from professional colleagues, friends, and organizations. Initially trained in internal medicine, Federn was an early member of Sigmund Freud’s inner circle of psychoanalysts. As a student and close associate of Freud and an original member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, he was actively involved in the development of the field of psychoanalyis. His writings centered chiefly on the psychology of the ego. Letters include discussions of patients, developments in the field of psychoanalysis, and personal notes. There is extensive correspondence from analysts István Hollós and Heinrich Meng. There is also correspondence from Herbert H. Lehman, governor of New York and United States Senator. Other notable correspondents include August Aichhorn, Franz Alexander, Edward L. Bernays, Siegfried Bernfeld, Princess Marie Bonaparte, A. A. Brill, Felix and Helene Deutsch, Max Eitingon, Otto Fenichel, Sándor Ferenczi, Anna Freud, Edward Glover, Georg Groddeck, Karen Horney, Ignotus (1869-1949), Smith Ely Jelliffe, Ernest Jones, Ernst Kris, Olen Nemon, Clarence P. Oberndorf, Oskar Pfister, Sandor Rado, Otto Rank, Theodor Reik, Géza Róheim, Hanns Sachs, Ernst Simmel, Alfhild Tamm, Immanuel Velikovsky, Doris Webster, Fredric Wertham, and Hans Zulliger.
The Case File contains material pertaining to patients Federn treated in New York where he settled after emigrating from Vienna in 1938. The files include Federn’s notes, correspondence, and patient’s writings.
Speeches and Writings by Federn are scant with only fragments of articles, notes, notebooks, and diary fragments extant in the file. Draft copies of speeches and writings sent to Federn by colleagues including Edward Hitschmann, Istvàn Hollòs, and Ignacio Matte Blanco complete the file. Miscellany includes children’s drawings, an emigration guide for psychoanalysts, newspaper clippings, and printed matter.
The Addition supplements the collection with correspondence of Heinrich Meng, Hanns Sachs, August Stärcke, Alfhild Tamm, Victor Tausk, and others. It also includes family papers and genealogical material, school and university papers, printed matter, and speeches and writings, including a typescript of an article by Federn’s daughter, Annie Urbach, entitled “Memories of My Father.”