Bloomsbury/Freud: The Letters of James and Alix Strachey, 1924-1925

by James Strachey, Alix Strachey, Perry Meisel

Chronicles the growth of their surprisingly modern marriage of equals as well as their separated but similar worlds of literature and bohemianism united by the burgeoning field of psychoanalysis

Hardcover

First published November 1, 1985

About the author

James Strachey was a British psychoanalyst who, along with his wife Alix, translated the works of Sigmund Freud into English. He also served as the literary executor for his brother, Lytton Strachey.

Reviews

[Judith Shadford]

Bought this decades ago because I was collecting as many Bloomsbury-Virginia Woolf books as I came across. But I read it as Bloomsbury/Feud. (Why I didn't read it sooner...that would have been deeply involving.) Anyhow, during the early early days of psychoanalysis, both James and Alix sought out therapy for themselves. In the process, they both became superb translators of German, and of Freud's works as they were published. Ultimately, they translated what became known as the Standard Edition of Freud's works--a monumental 28 volumes.

What made this book readable was the correspondence between Alix and James during her time living in Berlin during her own therapy with Karl Abraham, he in London, also in therapy and seeing patients. Short, intensely loving letters: gossip, dinner parties, "send more books", passing translations back and forth, weather, dancing, concerts attended by musicians still very much in the forefront of classical music, and lurking in the background, the murmurs that became National Socialism--themselves quite anti-semitic. Most interesting.

[Ryan Johnson]

I'm not much of a Romantic, but am surely a Freud follower, I thought this book would have given a greater insight into some of Freud's papers, not so much.

But still cool nonetheless, especially seeing how I came about to have the chance to read this older, heirloom book, something I'll never forget. .