100 years ago, Sigmund Freud made his first and only trip to the United States to deliver a series of lectures on psychoanalysis at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Jeb Sharp talks to Clark University archivst Mott Linn about the historic visit.

“In Europe I felt as though I were despised, but at Clark I found myself received by the foremost of men as an equal.”
—from Freud’s autobiography

Pictured at Clark University in 1909 are, from left (front): Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, Carl Jung; (back) A.A. Brill, Ernest Jones, and Sandor Ferenczi. (Photo courtesy Clark University)

100 years ago this weekend, Sigmund Freud made his first and only trip to the United States to deliver a series of lectures at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Anchor Jeb Sharp talks to Clark University archivist Mott Linn about the visit.

Pictured at Clark University in 1909 are, from left (front): Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, Carl Jung; (back) A.A. Brill, Ernest Jones, and Sandor Ferenczi. (Photo courtesy Clark University)

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JEB SHARP: A hundred years ago a Viennese doctor paid a visit to the city of Worcester in Massachusetts to give a series of lectures. This man had big ideas – about the unconscious, the id, and the ego. Yes we’re talking about Sigmund Freud. But back in 1909 when he made his first and only visit to the US his name hadn’t yet become an adjective. In fact back then Freud was desperate for some recognition. He got it at Clark University in Worcester. At the time the school was renowned for its psychology program. Mott Linn is the chief archivist for Clark University.

MOTT LINN: Today Freud is such a big name but back then he wasn’t. This was sort of his coming-out party. We had some credibility that he was hoping to get. And yet in Europe it may have been because of his new ideas; it may have been in part because he was Jewish but he wasn’t able to get into most areas of academia. And so this was a way to try and …. Okay we’ll go to Clark, get better well known in the US and hopefully that will reverberate into Europe.

SHARP: Let’s go back a little bit. How old would he have been and what stage of his career was he at? And also paint a picture of the journey. This is 1909.

LINN: He was a little over 50 years old. Now he came with a couple of other psychoanalysts – most famously Carl Jung. And Jung was much younger. He was 34. Both of these men ended up getting honorary degrees from Clark University. Freud’s is noteworthy because it’s the only honorary degree he ever received. And so they came over. It took a couple of weeks to sail across the ocean to New York City. Then sail to southeastern Massachusetts, took a train to Boston, took a train to Worcester. And they were there for about a week.

SHARP: So Freud comes to Clark. He gives a series of five lectures on the origin and development of psychoanalysis. Describe the impact both on the people who heard these lectures but also on Freud.

LINN: Well it really kick started his career. Before then not a lot of people knew of him and took his work that seriously. But there was very little of that. His famous book, “The Interpretation of Dreams,” came out in 1909 and even six years later only a few hundred copies had been sold worldwide. So that kind of demonstrates how little cache his ideas had. And this really did kick start his career; was taken more seriously in the US and as he had hoped it translated to being taken more seriously across the Atlantic.

SHARP: I understand Freud and Jung delivered their lectures in German. Was there translation?

LINN: There was not translation there. Back then all your best universities had been in Europe, mostly in Germany. And so if you wanted to be a scholar you had to learn German. And so all these professors of psychology and all the graduate students of psychology would have known German and to a greater or lesser extent would have been able to understand what Freud was saying.

SHARP: Tell me more about his trip. What happened to him? What did he see? What were his impressions?

LINN: Well after Worcester they took some time off. They took a train trip out to see Niagara Falls and then another train trip into the Adirondacks. One of the highlights of the trip, according to Freud, was he seeing a porcupine. And so for whatever reason he thought that this was a wonderful thing.

SHARP: Lovely. Archivist Mott Linn of Clark University. Thanks so much for coming in.

LINN: Thank you very much.

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