A Portrait of the Psychoanalyst as a Bohemian: Ernest Jones and the ‘Lady from Styria’

Abstract

Early psychoanalysts had to work out what it meant for ‘civilized’ sexual morality to lift repression. One possibility was that polygamy might replace monogamy. By 1908 Freud was worried that the defence and practice of polygamy amongst his followers might bring psychoanalysis into disrepute. A central figure in this danger was Otto Gross who openly espoused polygamy and whose ideas had an impact on Jung. New evidence shows that he had an effect too on Ernest Jones, through his wife Frieda with whom Jones had a ‘polygamous’ relationship whilst Gross was with Jung at the Burghölzli in May and June 1908. This relationship is one part of the background to Freud's concern with counter-transference from 1909 and his growing insistence on the psychoanalyst being himself analysed. This paper presents the letters from Jones to Frieda Gross in their historical context.