Scope and Content Note
The papers of Siegfried Bernfeld (1892-1953) cover the period 1854-1975, although the bulk of the collection dates from 1930 to 1953, the date of Bernfeld's death. In general, the papers before 1936 are in German; those after that date are in English. Virtually all of the papers after 1945 are in English, though some correspondence as well as source material collected after that time is in German. Included in addition to correspondence are writings, reports, minutes of meetings, research files, printed matter, and other material.The Bernfeld Papers consist of six series: Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, Professional File, Writings and Related Material, Sigmund Freud Biographical Material, and Miscellany.
Because Bernfeld trained under Sigmund Freud and became a member of the psychoanalytic community in Vienna, and since almost half of the papers represent the research of Siegfried and his wife, Suzanne Casirer Bernfeld, on Sigmund Freud, these papers complement the Sigmund Freud Papers. They provide source material for studies of the history of psychology and psychoanalytic theory, the psychoanalytic movement in Europe and the United States, and the Jewish youth movement of the early twentieth century, as well as related topics. Of special interest are materials on cross-disciplinary studies concerning behavior, consciousness, topology, and the mathematical expression of theoretical concepts.
Writing to Ernest Jones in April 1952, Bernfeld stated, "Mrs. Bernfeld is a full partner in my biographical work but has the disadvantage of 'standing in my shadow.' Whenever that happens I get angry." Any papers, therefore, which apply to Freud might be considered as collections or works of both Bernfelds. Suzanne Bernfeld underwent psychoanalysis with Freud in 1934 and was herself a practicing lay psychoanalyst, and she shared her husband's almost lifelong fascination in Freud as a person and as the creator of the psychoanalytic movement. The papers indicate that the Bernfelds first assimilated research material for journal articles, many of which are represented in the collection, and later, for a complete biography of Freud. Their work, however, was curtailed by illnesses and terminated by Siegfried Bernfeld's death in 1953.
The Professional File and the Writings and Related Material series represent Bernfeld as a member of the psychoanalytic community in Europe and in the United States. The series relate to the study of the history of psychology and of the psychoanalytic movement as a whole, with lesser emphasis on Bernfeld as an individual.
The General Correspondence series is in two sections, the first arranged alphabetically by the names of the correspondents, and the second arranged chronologically by year. Letters in the chronological file fall into three general categories: dated letters with unidentifiable signatures (circa 1891-1930); routine business or professional correspondence (circa 1920-1959); and undated letters with unidentifiable signatures. In the earlier years, 1891 to 1936, and in the undated folder at the end of the series, most of the correspondence consists of letters, notes, and cards in handwritten German. In later years, the correspondence is usually typewritten but is generally from one-time-only correspondents, and the letters are brief and routine, such as in the confirmation of an appointment or in the solicitation of a monograph. The correspondents who wrote Bernfeld frequently or at greater length are in the alphabetical file, with a few exceptions in other series because of subject matter, as indicated in the container list. Letters relating to Freud and Freud's biography are scattered throughout the General Correspondence, with most of the related research and correspondence occurring in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The Professional File is arranged according to Bernfeld's European and American periods. In the European section, Bernfeld's papers reflect various developments in the Jewish youth movement, educational reform, psychoanalytic theory, and the Wiener Psychoanalytischer Vereinigung. There are typed minutes, though incomplete, of the Vienna society from 1910 to 1923. One section, from 1918 to 1920, is in the hand of Theodor Reik. Also included in this section are manuscript or typescript drafts of psychoanalytic writings by such figures as Paul Federn, Otto Fenichel, Herbert Silberer, and Gustav Wyneken. Subjects include dreams, projection, Marxism, socialism, and education, all as related to psychology and psychoanalytic theory.
The American section of the Professional File covers chiefly the period after 1937, when Bernfeld immigrated to the United States. Settling in San Francisco, Bernfeld centered his activities around the psychoanalytic movement in the United States, the problems of standards, qualifications, and training for psychoanalysts, and the organization of such groups as the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Study Group. Bernfeld's developmental ideas on the importance of applying psychoanalysis to the problems of education and of establishing criteria for training and control analysis are scattered throughout the collection. Some of the ideas, however, are expressed in short papers in this section and in the correspondence of Ernst Simmel.
Although the Writings and Related Material series consists primarily of manuscripts, drafts, and other papers that are undated, the writings seem representative of Bernfeld's work during the 1920s, 1930s, and to some extent, the 1940s. None of Bernfeld's major published works, however, are included in the collection. Unpublished works and fragments reflect Bernfeld's wide range of interests in psychoanalytic theory, in socialism or Marxism, and in education.
Bernfeld devoted much time and research to treatises on the geometry of organisms and on the theory of consciousness ( Bewusstesein). Because he was interested in cross-disciplinary studies in biology, psychology, history and physics, he used mathematical coordinates to express the behavior of organisms. His long-range conviction was the possibility of expressing what he considered the core of psychology, the theory of consciousness, within a theory of sets of points and topology.
The Sigmund Freud Biographical Material series contains rare articles about Freud and copies of writings by Freud chiefly from the 1880s and 1890s, including a copy of a handwritten manuscript from 1920. There are also copies of publications on the schools Freud attended prior to the University of Vienna and copies of the Neue Freie Presse in 1880, as well as bibliographies of Freud's writings and of articles about Freud. Correspondence in this series includes copies of Freud's letters to Wilhelm Fliess, Ludwig Jekels, Theodor Reik, Hanns Sachs, Ernst Simmel, and George Sylvester Viereck. There are also a few copies of letters written to him. Some letters are typed and translated into English, but most are in Freud's handwriting in German.
Also in the Sigmund Freud series are several drafts and notes from Ernest Jones, who, when writing his first volume of the Life and Work of Sigmund Freud in 1950-1952, solicited Bernfeld's help and cooperation in verifying biographical information. The Jones correspondence from this period in the General Correspondence series is also of interest.
The research notebooks that the Bernfelds used for references and studies for a Freud biography are arranged in alphabetical order according to titles provided by the Bernfelds, usually by names of people who knew Freud or came in contact with him. There are a few headings for place names with notes about these areas and the time Freud spent in them. Most of the entries are cross-referenced with Freud's own works, and many are cross-referenced within the Bernfeld files. The names indicated in this section of the container list represent a sampling only of correspondents or interviewees included in the notebooks, with some correspondence occurring in copies and others in original.
Significant correspondents in the collection include Leslie Adams, Franz Alexander, William G. Barrett, Manfred Bernfeld, Sergi Feitelberg, Otto Fenichel, Hilda Geiringer, Josef Gicklhorn, Fritz Goldmann, Willi Hoffer, Ernest Jones, Bernard A. Kamm, Hans Kohn, Ernst Kris, Hans Lampl, Rudolf Olden, Helen W. Puner, Otto Rank, Theodor Reik, Hanns Sachs, Ernst Simmel, René A. Spitz, William Stern, Ernst Waldinger, and Gustav Wyneken.