‘Operation Pied Piper’: A Psychoanalytic Narrative of Authority in a Time of War

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-52
Author(s):  
Lisa Farley
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
World War ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Mind ◽  
British Children

The evacuation of British children during World War II is read alongside the legend of the ‘Pied Piper’ after which the mass migration was officially named. While virtually every British account of World War II makes mention of the evacuation, most are silent on the question of its ominous title: ‘Operation Pied Piper’. This paper traces the legend's key theme – on influencing and being influenced – as it surfaces in the writing of one child analyst and one social worker charged with the responsibility of leading a family of five hostels for British youth. At a time when Hitler's deadly regime reached unprecedented heights across the Channel, the legend of the ‘Pied Piper’ becomes a highly suggestive metaphor for thinking about D. W. Winnicott and Clare Britton's writing on what authority could mean in the face of leadership gone terribly wrong. Quite another, profoundly intimate loss of leadership haunts their words as well: Sigmund Freud, in exile from Hitler's Europe and leader of the psychoanalytic movement, died in London just weeks after the first wave of Blitz evacuations. It is in this context that Winnicott and Britton articulated a theory of authority that could address the losses of history without at the same time demanding the loss of the mind.

The Unassailable Self: Freud's Image Among Post-war American Intellectuals

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Jenness
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
External Force ◽  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Human Being ◽  
World War ◽  
The Us ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Way

This paper explores the way American intellectuals depicted Sigmund Freud during the peak of popularity and prestige of psychoanalysis in the US, roughly the decade and a half following World War II. These intellectuals insisted upon the unassailability of Freud's mind and personality. He was depicted as unsusceptible to any external force or influence, a trait which was thought to account for Freud's admirable comportment as a scientist, colleague and human being. This post-war image of Freud was shaped in part by the Cold War anxiety that modern individuality was imperilled by totalitarian forces, which could only be resisted by the most rugged of selves. It was also shaped by the unique situation of the intellectuals themselves, who were eager to position themselves, like the Freud they imagined, as steadfastly independent and critical thinkers who would, through the very clarity of their thought, lead America to a more robust democracy.

The Argentine Proposal for Non-belligerency, April 1940

1969 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph S. Tulchin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
World War ◽  
Blue Book ◽  
Black Sheep ◽  
Argentine Republic ◽  
The Face ◽  
General Elections

Argentine neutrality during World War II with its suspicious leanings toward fascism has become a cliché in inter-American relations. As far as the United States was concerned at that time, the Argentine Republic was the black sheep of the hemispheric community, the only nation that failed to cooperate wholeheartedly in the crusade against the Axis. The famous State Department “Blue Book,” so conveniently published prior to the Argentine general elections of 1946, spelled out the aid and comfort the Nazis had derived from Argentina's neutrality. By only the narrowest margin did Argentina avoid being drummed out of the hemispheric organization and barred from membership in the new United Nations.It seems strange, therefore, to recall that it was the Argentine government that first suggested, in the spring of 1940, that the nations of the Western Hemisphere discard the posture of traditional neutrality in the face of the spreading conflagration in Europe, on the grounds that it was anachronistic and did not protect their interests.

“In a Strange Country”

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas E. Morel
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Black American ◽  
World War ◽  
White American ◽  
Full Participation ◽  
American Citizenship ◽  
The Face ◽  
Racially Mixed

Lucas Morel’s “‘In a Strange Country’: The Challenge of American Inclusion” interprets Ellison’s 1944 short story as a civics lesson for a republic struggling with the legacy of race. The story follows a black Merchant Marine, Mr. Parker, during World War II as he recovers from a mugging by white American servicemen while on shore leave in Wales. Ellison presents a lesson of civic inclusion by showcasing a “black Yank” being rescued by Welshmen. Parker witnesses how his Welsh hosts transcend class conflict through a common devotion to music, which he likened to the racially mixed “jam sessions” back in America. Herein Ellison articulates the obstacles and pathways to black American citizenship—a reminder that “the land of the free” requires one not only to be “brave” in the face of majority tyranny, but also good-humored, self-disciplined, and hopeful as one seeks full participation in the American regime.

Introduction: Mrs. A. and Dev Satya Nand

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Sarah Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Young Woman ◽  
Social World ◽  
New Method ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
World War ◽  
Dream Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Mind

In the middle of World War II and at the end of colonial rule, a young woman in Punjab met with family friend Dev Satya Nand as a willing participant in his new method of dream analysis. This chapter introduces Mrs. A., Satya Nand, and the outlines of the case, which began with a discussion of bringing “Hindu Socialism” to Indian peasants and turned into an exploration of love, sexuality, ambition, and life after marriage. The case appeared early in the career of Satya Nand, a prolific but little remembered figure in twentieth-century Indian psychiatry, who theorized complex connections between the mind and the social world, casting the psyche as an organic vehicle for ethical imagination. This introduction also introduces Draupadi, Shakuntala, and Ahalya, central mythic figures who entered Mrs. A.’s musings and Satya Nand’s science. It asks what it means to begin a conversation about ethics from elsewhere than the usual sources in European myth and philosophy, and wonders at how we might consider this narrative in and beyond its place and time, Punjab on the eve of Partition, considering what it demands of us as readers of and alongside Mrs. A., an anonymous yet intimate voice.

Florence Jaffray Harriman

2019 ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Philip Nash
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
York City ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
World War ◽  
The Face ◽  
Party Activist ◽  
Franklin Roosevelt

This chapter looks at the tenure of Florence Jaffray Harriman, minister to Norway (1937–1941). Harriman was a prominent New York City socialite and Democratic Party activist. President Franklin Roosevelt agreed to send the sixty-six-year-old Harriman to Norway because it was a small, neutral country unlikely to become involved in a European war. When World War II broke out in 1939, Harriman was caught in the midst of it. She performed admirably in the episode involving the City of Flint, a US merchant vessel captured by the Germans, and even more so when the Nazis invaded Norway in April 1940. Harriman risked her life trying to keep up with the fleeing Norwegian leadership, which was being pursued by German forces. Her performance in the face of such danger earned her widespread praise, further strengthening the case for female ambassadors.

The theory of symptom complexes, mind and madness

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio V Daker
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Clinical Manifestations ◽  
World War ◽  
Mental Symptom ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Disease Entities ◽  
The Mind

Kahlbaum’s seminal approach to symptom complexes, as opposed to disease entities, is still relevant. Many psychopathologists have approached mental symptom complexes without prejudging them as necessary physical deficits or diseases, favouring a broader dimensional and anthropological view of mental disorders. Discussions of symptom complexes gained prominence in psychiatry in the early twentieth century – through Hoche – and in the period leading up to World War II – through Carl Schneider. Their works, alongside those of Kraepelin, Bumke, Kehrer, Jaspers and others, are reviewed in relation to the theme of symptom complexes, the mind, and mental disorders. A particular feature of symptom complexes is their relationship to aspects of the normal mind and how this affects clinical manifestations. It is further suggested that symptom complexes might offer a useful bridge between the psychic and the biological in theories of the mind.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack M. Gorman
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Psychiatric Illness ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
World War ◽  
Psychiatric Illnesses ◽  
The Past ◽  
Neuroscience Research ◽  
The Mind

After World War II, mental health turned toward psychopharmacology, the use of medications to treat psychiatric illnesses, as its mainstay. The success of medications led some to insist that all mental illness is due to the inheritance of abnormal genes and that life’s experiences play a diminished role. This alienated many who believe that psychotherapy is also an effective way of treating these disorders and led to a mistrust of neuroscience research. Some insisted that neuroscience ignores the human “mind.” In fact, neuroscience research in the past 50 years has clearly shown that adverse life experiences have profound effects on brain function and are involved in every psychiatric illness. By accepting this view of neuroscience, we can also accept the idea that the “mind” is in reality the work of the physical brain.

A Progressive Social Worker Looks at World War II

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-128
Author(s):  
Leslie Leighninger
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
World War

Summary and Appraisal

1974 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 4-8
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Capital Flows ◽  
National Level ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Real Value ◽  
Reconstruction Period ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund said recently that the world is facing ‘the most difficult combination of economic policy decisions since the reconstruction period following World War II’. It is unfortunate that action, so far, in the face of mounting inflation and balance of payments difficulties, has been at a national level rather than on the international level which the situation requires. In particular, there is still an urgent need to make concrete arrangements for dealing with the capital flows resulting from the rise in oil prices, and to offset the deflationary impact of the latter, while, unless aid is increased substantially, the plight of some developing countries will become increasingly desperate as the real value of existing aid flows is rapidly eroded by inflation, and as their oil bills fall due for payment. Nevertheless the restoration of oil supplies combined with the delay between the raising of prices and actual payments at the new rates seems to have induced an unwarranted mood of euphoria in the consuming countries in the first few months of this year.

scholarly journals 17th IBBY Congress, Prague 1980

1970 ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Lebanese American University
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
World War ◽  
International Understanding

The International Board on Books for Young people", (IBBY), was founded in 1951, thanks to the efforts made by Jella Lepman, a British social worker who worked in Germany in the aftermath of World War II and there developed the idea that children's books could serve as a foundation for international understanding

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