EDITH KURZWEIL
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as well as with their own fathers. And they compromised further by
scheduling the Nazi issues on Tuesday alone - the other days were
reserved for identification in perversions, in children, in adolescents,
and in psychosis. This seemingly bland theme, with all its vicissi–
tudes, managed to lure back the international Freudians.
After fifty-three years, they settled on Hamburg: Berlin would
be too "claustrophobic," Munich too reminiscent of the rise of Hitler,
Frankfurt too small, and Bonn or Wiesbaden too "American." Fur–
thermore, Hamburg's liberal history, its beautiful sights, good
museums and hotels, and, most of all, its openminded and erudite
mayor, it was hoped, would help wipe out painful memories. The
mayor proved his mettle. In straightforward fashion, he reminded
the analysts that when they had met in Wiesbaden, in 1932, they
had ignored the threat posed by National Socialism. He hoped that
now they would put their "scientific tools and resources" at the ser–
vice of humanity, by probing into the depths of the German psyche
- to preserve freedom, and "to escape the historical entanglement."
He attacked the compromises Germans had made with Hitler, sup–
posedly "for the sake of preserving a whole which soon ceased to ex–
ist." Graciously, he wondered whether the psychoanalysts could help
us all "to be and to act better ." Just as graciously, Chasseguet–
Smirgel, who, for the occasion even had learned German (assisted
by quotes from Heine and Goethe's
Faust),
said that those psycho–
analysts who came had done so "to heal some wounds, to make some
friends, and to learn to forgive." (The marvelous food which was
served after this opening ceremony went far to facilitate the wel–
come.)
Actually, American attendance was considerably smaller than
usual. And, although no statistical breakdown was available, it seemed
to me that many of the close to 1,800 Hamburg pilgrims went to
recover a past they had not known personally, and that the Ameri–
cans who participated, on balance, were younger than those at pre–
vious meetings - not only because many of the old generation have
died, but because some chose to stay home. In other words, the con–
gress was full of good motives and good will, as well as of apprehen–
sion and naivete.
On theoretical issues, the psychoanalysts performed as usual.
During the first session, for instance, Melvin Glasser of London
gave his overview of perversions, of their roots in early identifica–
tion , their possible manifestations in "acting out," and their means of
treatment. The next speaker, Joyce McDougall of Paris, questioned
