1. Correspondence

id
1034050
level (num)
1
level (text)
series
identifier (local_mss)
976916
max depth
1
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created
2015-05-07 00:42:37 UTC
updated
2015-10-18 07:05:18 UTC

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unitid
{"value"=>"976916", "type"=>"local_mss"}
unittitle
{"value"=>"1. Correspondence"}
scopecontent
{"value"=>"<p>The correspondence reflects mainly the period when Fromm was residing in New York and in Bennington, Vermont. His correspondents include professional and academic colleagues, psychologists, psychoanalysts, anthropologists, sociologists, university professors, physicians, editors of scholarly journals, publishers, refugees, refugee aid organizations, graduate students and others. There is some family correspondence filed under \"Fromm Family\". The correspondents are scattered in many countries including Bolivia, China, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Latvia, Mexico, Poland, Soviet Union, Switzerland and Turkey. The correspondence relates to a variety of subjects from mundane matters of Fromm's personal life to his professional, scholarly, and academic interests, associations and relationships. Included is correspondence relating to the International Institute for Social Research, his books Escape from Freedom and Man for Himself, his scholarly articles and book reviews, matters of psychoanalytic theory and its implications for cultural analysis, the status of non-medical psychoanalysts, speaking engagements, conferences and seminars. Notable correspondents include Angelica Balabanoff, John Dollard, Max Horkheimer, Ernst Jones, Harold D. Lasswell, Paul Lazarsfeld, Helen Lynd, Robert Staughton Lynd, Margaret Mead, Ashley Montagu, Robert Redfield, Wilhelm Reich, David Riesman, Harry Stack Sullivan, and Carl August Wittfogel.</p> <p>The Paul Lazarsfeld file contains textual criticisms by Lazarsfeld of <em>Autorität in der Familie</em> which Fromm was preparing for publication. Included in the Robert S. Lynd file is a letter by Fromm in which he inadvertently hits upon the title for his book Escape from Freedom. Included in the Margaret Mead file are two autograph letters written by her while she was en route to Bali and in which she announces her marriage to Gregory Bateson and mentions her colleagues Geoffrey Gorer and Helen Lynd. The correspondence also reveals her debt to Fromm for the concept of surplus in primitive societies. Included also are her notes on character formation which she submitted to Fromm for his comments. The Ashley Montagu file relates to Montagu's search for a university appointment in anthropology and to a proposed popular edition of Freud's writings. The Wilhelm Reich file relates in part to the methodology of mass psychology and to the use of psychology in sociology. The correspondence which is in German is addressed to Fromm at Davos and Lausanne, Switzerland. Included is a copy of a letter to Freud from Max Horkheimer requesting his advice on a replacement for Fromm who was too ill to continue his work at the Institute for Social Research (Frankfurt). The David Riesman file relates in part to Riesman's sociological research, his need to gain experience in interviewing techniques, and to his acceptance of a position as director of research for the Committee on National Policy at Yale. Included is a copy (1941) of a paper which Riesman gave at the Roundtable on Public Opinion and Propaganda of the American Political Science Association. The Carl A. Wittfogel file contains a lengthy letter (1936) from Wittfogel at Peking, China where he was conducting research on the Chinese family. Wittfogel acknowledges Fromm's influence on his own work. Fromm's reply contains a critique of Freud's theory of sublimation.</p> <p>The correspondence relating to refugees is contained mainly in the files of Heinz Eduard Brandt, Peter Gluck, and Kurt Wertheim. The Brandt file concerns a cousin of Fromm's who sought to emigrate from Germany and to the plight of Mrs. Gertrude Brandt, in Posnan, Poland. The Gluck and Wertheim files relate to persons residing in France and Germany, respectively, who also sought Fromm's help in coming to the United States.</p> <p>Included in the Fromm family correspondence is correspondence of Joseph Gurland, Fromm's brother-in-law relating to his search for employment as a chemical engineer.</p> <p>Other noteworthy correspondence includes the Elizabeth G. Brown file which contains comments by Brown written from Moscow on the Purge Trials and her reflections on Soviet society; The Family (periodical) which contains a review by Fromm of Margaret Mead's Sex and Temperament... and correspondence relating to <em>Autorität in der Familie</em> as well as a review of it by Otto Fenichel; and the file <em>Psychiatry</em> (a quarterly published by the William Alanson White Psychiatric Foundation) which includes a copy of an address by Fromm given at a memorial meeting (1940) for Harry Stack Sullivan, and copy of his review of Sullivan's <em>Conceptions of Modern Psychiatry</em>.</p>"}
arrangement
{"value"=>"<p>The correspondence which is in English and German is arranged alphabetically by personal name or organizational title into two subseries. Subseries \"A\" contains correspondence in the period 1932-1943; and subseries \"B\" in the period 1947-1949. The arrangement is chronological within the name or title. Some files contain collateral papers in addition to correspondence. No correspondence is present for the period 1944-46. The correspondence is both in-coming and out-going, the latter in the form of typed carbon copies. Filed at the end of each subseries are a few unidentified letters. The correspondents are listed in the Alphabetical Index of Correspondents following the container list.</p>"}

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  1. A [22/1]
  2. B [21/1]