Footnotes in the History of British Psychoanalysis: Observing Ernest Jones Discerning the Works of Sigmund Freud, 1905–1908

Abstract

In his late historical and autobiographical writings Ernest Jones claims that he first heard of Freud in 1903, then learnt German and was practising psychoanalysis by 1906. Observing Jones's intellectual development from his treatment of Tom Ellen in early 1905 through to his ‘emigration’ to Canada in late September 1908, reveals flaws in Jones's chronology because his journey towards ‘Freudianism’ was far more complex than he or his biographers have allowed. Jones's contemporaneous publications suggest that his early psychological researches were informed by Pierre Janet and that he only discovered Freud during the Amsterdam Congress in September 1907. Thereafter Jones's knowledge of Freud was gleaned second-hand mainly through the writings of the ‘Boston’ and ‘Zurich’ Schools and his first attempts at psychoanalysis were through Jung's Word Association Tests which he only started using after he arrived in Canada. Revising Jones's autobiographical claims has implications for our understanding of Jones and for the early history of British psychoanalysis.