Clinical Papers and Essays on Psychoanalysis

Karl Abraham can be considered one of Sigmund Freud's most creative and devoted disciples, and has been one of the most important voices in the development of psychoanalysis. Despite dying young, his key works provide an invaluable contribution to psychoanalysis as one of its most influential founding fathers.In 1907, he had his first contact with Freud, with whom he developed a lifetime relationship. Returning to Germany, he founded the Berliner Society of Psychoanalysis in 1910. He was the president of the International Psychoanalytical Association from 1914 to 1918 and again in 1925. Abraham collaborated with Freud on the understanding of manic-depressive illness, leading to Freud's paper on 'Mourning and Melancholia' in 1917. He was the analyst of Melanie Klein during 1924-1925, and of a number of other British psychoanalysts, including Edward Glover, James Glover, and Alix Strachey. He was a mentor for an influential group of German analysts, including Karen Horney, Helene Deutsch, and Franz Alexander. His key works cover the areas of the development of child sexuality and its relation to mental disorders, the development of the libido, cultural issues including work on various myths suggesting their relation to dreams (1909), as well as writing an interpretation of the spiritual activities of the Egyptian monotheistic Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1912).Described by Freud himself as his best pupil, his work is increasingly recognised for its importance in the development of psychoanalysis.

• Preface -- Introduction -- Clinical Papers -- On the Significance of Sexual Trauma in Childhood for the Symptomatology of Dementia Praecox (1907) -- The Significance of Intermarriage Between Close Relatives in the Psychology of the neuroses (1909) -- Observations of the Cult of the Mother and its Symbolism in Individual and Folk Psychology (1911) -- On the Determining Power of Names (1911) -- Should Patients Write Down Their Dreams? (1913) -- A Screen-Memory Concerning a Child-Hood Event of Apparently Aetiological Significance (1913) -- On the Psychogenesis of Agoraphobia in Childhood (1913) -- Some Remarks on the Role of Grand-Parents in the Psychology of Neuroses (1913) -- On Neurotic Exogamy: A Contribution to the Similarities in the Psychic Life of Neurotics and of Primitive Man(1913) -- A Contribution Towards the Understanding of the Suggestive Effect of Medicine in the Neuroses (1914) -- Some Illustrations on the Emotional Relationship of Little Girls Towards Their Parents (1917) -- Some Remarks on Ferenczi’s Paper on ‘Sunday Neuroses’ (1919) -- Two Mistakes of a Hebephrenic Patient (1921) -- Psycho-Analysis and the War neuroses (1921) -- The Rescue and Murder of the Father in Neurotic Phantasy-Formations (1922) -- Mistakes with an Over-Compensating Tendency (1922) -- An Octogenarian’s Mistake (1922) -- Two Contributions to the Study of Symbols (1923) -- Psycho-Analytical Views on Some Characteristics of Early Infantile Thinking (1923) -- Psycho-Analysis and Gynaecology (1925) -- Concurrent Phantasies in Mother and Son (1925) -- Review of C. G. Jung’s Versuch Einer Darstellung Der Psycho Analytischen Theorie (Attempt at a Representation of Psycho-Analytical Theory) (1914) -- The Cultural Significance of Psycho-Analysis (1920) -- The Day of Atonement -- Essays -- Dreams and Myths -- The Subject-Matter and Theory of Freudian Psycho-analysis -- Childhood Phantasies in Dreams and Myths. The Application of the Wish-fulfilment Theory to Myths -- Symbolism in Language, in Dreams, and in other Phantasy-Formations -- The Analysis of the Prometheus Myth -- Infantile Traits in Individual and Folk Psychology. Wish-fulfilment in Dreams and Myths -- The Effects of Censorship in Dreams and Myths. The Process of Condensation -- Displacement and Secondary Elaboration in Dreams and Myths -- The Effects of the Process of Displacement in the Myths of Prometheus, Moses and Samson -- The Means of Representation in the Myth -- Wish-fulfilment in the Prometheus Myth -- The Analysis of the Myth of the Descent of Nectar -- The Wish-fulfilment Theory of the Myth -- Determinism in the Psychic Life of the Individual and the Community -- Giovanni Segantini: A Psycho-Analytical Study (1911) -- Amenhotep IV: A Psycho-Analytical Contribution Towards the Understanding of his personality and of the Monotheistic Cult of Aton (1912) -- The History of an Impostor in the Light of Psycho-Analytical Knowledge (1925) -- Psycho-Analytical Notes on Coué’s System of Self-Mastery (1925)