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PREFACE

to ADDRESSES ON PSYCHO-ANALYSIS by J. J. PUTNAM, M. D.
ameritus Professor of Neurology, Harvard University (International Psycho-
Analytical Library, No. 1). The International Psycho-Analytical Press,
London — Vienna — New York 1921.

The Editor of this series must feel a special satisfaction in being able
to issue as its Opening volume this collection of the psycho-analytical writings
of Professor James J. Putnam, the distinguished neurologist of Harvard
University. Professor Putnam, who died in 1918 at the age of seventy-two,
was not only the first American to interest himself in psycho-analysis, but
soon became its most decided supporter and its most influential representative
in America. In consequence of the established reputation which he had
gained through his activities as a teacher, as well as through his important
work in the domain of organic nervous disease, and thanks to the universal
respect which his personality enjoyed, he was able to do perhaps more
than anyone for the spread of psycho-analysis in his own country, and was
able to protect it from aspersions which, on the other side of the Atlantic
no less than this, would inevitably have been cast upon it. But all such
reproaches were bound to be silenced when a man of Putnam’s lofty ethical
standards and more rectitude had ranged himself among the supporters
of the new science and of the therapeutics based upon it.

The papers here collected into a single volume, which were written by
Putmnn between 1909 and the end of his life, give a good picture of his
relations to psycho-analysis. They show how he was at first occupied in
correeting a provisional judgement which was based on insufficient knowledge;
how he then accepted the essence of analysis, recognized its capacity for
throwing & clear light upon the origin of human imperfections and failings,

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and how he was struclt by the prospect of contributing towards the improvement
of humanity along analytical lines; how he then became convinced by his
own activities as a physician as to the truth of most of the psycho-analytical
conclusions and postulates, and then in his turn bare witness to the fact
that the physician who makes use of analysis understands far more about
the sufferings of his patients and can do far more for them than was possible
with the earlier methods of treatment; and final how he began to extend
beyond the limits of analysis, demanding that as a science it should be
linked on to a particular philosophical system, and that its practice should
be openly associated with a particular set of ethical doctrines.

So it is not to be wondered at that a mind with such pre-eminently
ethicfll and philosophical tendencies as Putnam’s should have desired, after
he had plunged deep into psycho-analysis, to establish the closest relation
between it and the aims which lay nearest his heart. But his enthusiasm,
so admirable in a man of his advanced age, did not succeed in carrying
others along with him. Younger people remained cooler. It was especially
Ferenczi who expressed the opposite view. The decisive reason for the rejection
Of Putnam’S proposals was the doubt as to which of the countless philosophical
systems should be accepted, since they all seemed to rest on an equally
insecure basis, and since everything had up till then been sacrificed for
the sake of the relative certainty of the results of psycho-analysis. It seemecl
more prudent to wait, and to discover whether a particular attitude towards
life might be forced upon us with all the weight of necessity by analytical
investigation itself.

It is our duty to express our thanks to the author’s widow, Mrs. Pumami
for her assistance with the manuscripts, with the copyright, and with
financial support, without all of which the publication of this volume would
have been impossible. No English manuscripts were forthcoming in the
case of the papers numbered VI, VII, and X. They have been translated
into English by Dr. Katherine Jones from the German text which originated
from Putnam himself.

This volume will keep fresh in analytical circles the memory of the
friend whose loss we so profoundly deplore. May it be the first of a series
of publications which shall serve the end of furthering the understanding
and application of psycho-analysis among those who speak the English
tongue — an end to which James J. Putnam dedicated the last ten years
of his fruitful life.