Secret committee (psychoanalysis)

[1] The Committee was formed at the suggestion of Ernest Jones in response to Freud’s concerns over the consequences of disputes over theoretical issues in psychoanalysis.

In this context Freud wrote to Jones endorsing “your idea of a secret council composed of the best and most trustworthy among our men to take care of the further development of psychoanalysis and defend the cause against personalities and accidents when I am no more”.

[2] The Committee membership comprised Ernest Jones who served as the chairman, Sándor Ferenczi, Otto Rank, Hans Sachs, and Karl Abraham.

Jones intended the immediate political objective of forming the Committee to be the isolation of Jung and ultimately to force his resignation as president of the International Psychoanalytic Association.

[4] The Committee functioned well for a full decade, despite a world war, but dissension involving Rank and Ferenczi led to its dissolution in 1924.