Description
Freud in Bloomsbury
Book Summary
This book reconstructs the fascinating true story of James and Alix Strachey, the couple who first translated the work of Sigmund Freud into English. In the 1920s, these two members of the celebrated Bloomsbury Group traveled to Vienna to train directly under the founder of psychoanalysis. Readers will discover how Virginia Woolf’s intellectual circle became the vehicle for the spread of psychoanalysis in the English-speaking world, an intellectual adventure that culminated decades later in the canonical edition of Freud's complete works.
What is it about?
Henriette Michaud chronicles the genesis of one of the most ambitious publishing and intellectual undertakings of the 20th century: the English translation of Sigmund Freud’s work. The story begins in 1920, when James Strachey and his wife Alix, members of the Bloomsbury Group, travel to Vienna to undergo analysis with Freud and learn from him the art of psychoanalytic translation. Freud himself entrusts them with the English version of his texts and discusses the choice of each term with them.
Back in London, the couple publishes the translation of "Five Psycho-Analyses" at the Hogarth Press, the publishing house of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, in the heart of literary Bloomsbury. Twenty years later, after Freud's death, his son Ernst promotes a complete reference edition. James Strachey and Leonard Woolf, now in their sixties, take up the titanic task of establishing the definitive version of psychoanalysis in the English language.
Main Topics
- The history of the translation and reception of psychoanalysis in the Anglo-Saxon world.
- The personal and intellectual relationship between Sigmund Freud and his first translators.
- The Bloomsbury Group and its role as a bridge between Viennese psychoanalysis and British culture.
- The technical and conceptual challenges of translating psychoanalytic terminology.
- The genesis of the canonical edition of Freud's complete works (Standard Edition).
Who is it recommended for?
This book is aimed at readers interested in the history of psychoanalysis, the intellectual history of the 20th century, and the processes of translating ideas between cultures. It will also be of great interest to those who want to know about Virginia Woolf’s circle and the Bloomsbury Group from a rarely explored perspective, as well as to students and professionals in psychology and the humanities who wish to understand how the Freudian corpus was forged in the English language.
What this book contributes
- A detailed and documented vision of how Freud's ideas crossed linguistic and cultural borders.
- An intimate portrait of a couple of intellectuals whose quiet labor was fundamental to the spread of psychoanalysis.
- The unexpected connection between Viennese psychoanalysis and the London literary avant-garde of the early 20th century.
- An understanding of the dilemmas and decisions that shaped the reference edition of Freud that is still used today.
Technical Sheet
- Author: MICHAUD, HENRIETTE
- Publisher: EDICIONES MANANTIAL, SRL
- Language: Spanish
- Subject: HUMANITIES, PSYCHOLOGY
- Collection: BORDES
- Binding: Paperback
- Publication date: June 2024
- Number of pages: 208
- Weight: 180 g
Editorial Review
Henriette Michaud offers an essay that combines historical rigor with a near-novelistic narrative, rescuing a key and often invisible figure in the history of psychoanalysis: the translator. "Freud in Bloomsbury" not only illuminates an essential chapter in the spread of Freudian ideas but also shows how the encounter between psychoanalysis and the Bloomsbury Group was a first-rate cultural event. It is a recommended read for those seeking to understand the intellectual context in which psychoanalysis was forged as a global discipline.