EDER, DAVID MONTAGUE (1866-1936)

David Montague Eder, an English psychoanalyst, was born in August 1866 in London, where he died on March 30, 1936. He studied medicine in London, opened a practice as a general practitioner and, with Clara Grant, started the first school clinic as a result of his interest in education. He met Ernest Jones in 1904, but it was his enthusiasm that stemmed from his reading "Little Hans" in 1909 that led him to psychoanalysis. In 1911 he gave the first psychoanalytic conference in Great Britain, which scandalized members of the British Medical Association. After becoming an analyst in 1912, he met Jung and translated two of his works into English: Diagnostiche Assoziationsstudien (Diagnostic Association Studies) and Versuch einer Darstellung der psychoanalytischen Theorie (The Theory of Psychoanalysis). In 1913 he traveled to Vienna to be analyzed by Freud, who sent him to Viktor Tausk. Eder was successively analyzed by Tausk, by Jones, and, after an attempt with Karl Abraham, by Sándor Ferenczi, with whom he shared the illusion of the "perfectly analyzed analyst." Eder also introduced the work of Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon in Great Britain.

Eder was involved in a number of political and social issues. He argued against the unfairness of the Mental Deficiency Bill. Associated with Zionist literary and political circles through his Jewish family (he was a cousin of the writer Israel Zangwill and a friend of D. H. Lawrence; his wife, Edith, was the sister of the analyst Barbara Low), he embraced the Zionist cause.

In 1915 Eder joined the army as a doctor and was stationed in Malta, then at a neurological clinic in London. He published a book about his experiences entitled War-shock (1917), which focused on wartime neuroses and their treatment. In 1920, while living in Palestine, he worked with Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president, and led seminars in analysis (with Dorian Faigenbaum). This represented the first appearance of analysis in Israel prior to the arrival of Max Eitingon. He later became an elected representative of the Zionist Executive in Palestine and served from 1921 to 1927.

Eder distanced himself from Jung's ideas. In 1923 he joined the British Psychoanalytic Society, where he held numerous positions: first as secretary, then as director of the Institute of Psychoanalysis and director of the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis. In 1932 he was elected president of the medical section of the British Psychological Society.

He was the first to use psychoanalysis to treat a case of stuttering, which is described in "Das Stottern eine Psychoneurose und seine Behandlung durch die Psychoanalyse" (Stuttering: a psychoneurosis and its treatment through psychoanalysis; 1913). His theoretical works comprise some thirty articles, covering subjects that include dreams and resistance (1930), the psychological problems of eugenics and birth control, the economy and future of the superego (1929), the father's animosity toward the son, and Jewish rituals (1933).

This "political pugilist" and "liberator by vocation" (as Edward Glover described him) was also a passionate advocate of psychoanalysis, which he introduced into schools and prisons. Sigmund Freud confided to Barbara Low that he represented "a rare blend of intrepid courage and an absolute love of truth, together with tolerance and a great capacity to love."

Michelle Moreau Ricaud

See also: Great Britain; Israel; Low, Barbara

Bibliography

Eder, David. (1913). Das Stottern: eine Psychoneurose und seine Behandlung durch die Psychoanalyse. Internationale Zeitschrift fürärztliche Psychoanalyse, 1.

——. (1917). War shock. London: W. Heineman.

——. (1929). On the economics and the future of the super-ego. International Journal of Psycho-analysis, 10, 249-255.

——. (1930). Dreams—as resistance. International Journal of Psycho-analysis, 11, 40-47.

——. (1933). The Jewish phylacteries and other Jewish ritual observances. International Journal of Psycho-analysis, 14, 341-375.

Glover, Edward. (1945). Eder as a psychoanalyst. In Joseph Burton Hobman (Ed.), David Eder: Memoirs of a modern pioneer. London: Victor Gollancz.

Hobman, Joseph Burton (Ed.). (1945). David Eder: Memoirs of a modern pioneer. London: Victor Gollancz.