Editing Sigmund Freud Archives (section)

==History==

=== Early history ===
The Archives were founded by [[Kurt R. Eissler]] in 1951, together with a group of people who knew Freud personally, including [[Heinz Hartmann]], [[Ernst Kris]], [[Bertram Lewin]] and [[Hermann Nunberg]].<ref name="Kurt Eissler" /> It was directed by Eissler for decades after its founding. Eissler prevented many well-meaning scholars from seeing many Freud documents, claiming confidentiality, even when their donors had not requested nor demanded confidentiality and even when no potential victims of the revelation of those documents existed.{{sfn|Swales|1985}} By the 1980s, Eissler, with the help of [[Anna Freud]], had expanded the collection to include thousands of items.<ref name="Kurt Eissler" />

=== Masson controversy ===
{{Further information|Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson#Views on Freud's seduction theory}}
Eissler was introduced to Masson in 1974.<ref name="Kurt Eissler" /> Masson was appointed secretary, and Eissler intended for Masson to succeed him as director,<ref name="Kurt Eissler" /> which he did in 1980. Being an officer of the Archives, Masson had administrative access to all its documents, and he was therefore allowed to see anything he wanted breaking the seal whenever necessary.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

In 1981, Masson published a paper wherein he claimed that [[Freud's seduction theory#Abandonment|Freud's abandonment of his seduction theory]] had taken place for reasons not related to the scientific merit of the theory,<ref name="Kurt Eissler" /> namely that Freud believed that granting the truth of his female patients' claims that they had been sexually abused would risk the reputation of the emerging [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] method.<ref>''Assault on Truth''</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2023}} Masson said that "Freud began a trend away from the real world that, it seems to me, has come to a dead halt in the present-day sterility of psychoanalysis throughout the world."<ref name="Kurt Eissler" />

Eissler was deeply shocked ("Just today [[Masud Khan]] called me from London and asked me to dismiss you from the Archives. The board members, all of them, or at least most of them, are asking for the same."<ref>Eissler to Masson, p. 194 of ''Final Analysis''</ref>), and Masson was subsequently dismissed from his job at the Archives, whereupon followed three lawsuits and a well-publicized scandal.<ref name="Kurt Eissler" /><ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9400E3DA1E39F93AA35752C1A967948260 "Freud Archives Research Chief Removed in Dispute Over Yale Talk"] by Ralph Blumenthal, ''The New York Times'' November 9, 1981</ref>

=== Recent history ===
Harold P. Blum succeeded Masson and Eissler as Executive Director. He was succeeded by Louis Rose, who is the current director {{As of|2025|lc=y}}.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/bio/blum.html Photo]</ref><ref name="Sigmund Freud Archives">[http://www.freudarchives.org/ Sigmund Freud Archives]</ref> The other current officers are Jennifer Stuart as President, Nellie L. Thompson as Secretary, and W. Craig Tomlinson as Treasurer.<ref name="Sigmund Freud Archives" />