BRILL, ABRAHAM ARDEN (1874— 1948)
Abraham Arden Brill was an Austrian-American psychoanalyst and psychiatrist best known for his pioneering work in the field of psychoanalysis. Brill is credited with being the first American psychoanalyst and for introducing the technique of free association to the United States. He is also noted for his work on the psychoanalytic understanding of dreams and his influential book, The Basic Ideas of Psychoanalysis.
Definition
Abraham Arden Brill was an Austrian-American psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who is best known for his pioneering work in the field of psychoanalysis. He introduced the technique of free association to the United States and wrote an influential book, The Basic Ideas of Psychoanalysis.
History
Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1874, Brill studied medicine at the University of Vienna and graduated in 1898. He began working in the field of psychiatry in 1900 and was one of the first to study the works of Sigmund Freud, which greatly influenced his thinking. In 1908, he moved to the United States and became the first psychoanalyst in practice in the United States.
In 1911, Brill published The Basic Ideas of Psychoanalysis, which was the first psychoanalytic book published in the United States. It was widely read and helped to introduce the field of psychoanalysis to the American public. Brill also introduced the technique of free association to the United States, which is a method of uncovering unconscious thoughts and feelings by having the patient freely associate words and ideas.
In addition to his work in psychoanalytic theory, Brill was also noted for his work on the psychoanalytic understanding of dreams. He wrote several books on dream interpretation, including The Psychoanalysis of Dreams (1913) and The Interpretation of Dreams of Childhood and Adolescence (1943).
References
Brome, V. (1999). Abraham Arden Brill. In The psychoanalytic movement; the Cunning of Unreason (pp. 134-138). New York: Free Press.
Grotstein, J. S. (2003). Abraham Arden Brill and the Americanization of psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 51(4), 1293-1317.
Pfeifer, S. (2017). Abraham Arden Brill (1874-1948): Introducing psychoanalysis to America. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 77(4), 381-393.
Rudnytsky, P. L. (2013). Abraham Arden Brill: A psychoanalytic pioneer in America. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 61(2), 281-301.