The Early History of Psycho-Analysis

Extract

It is rare for someone at my time of life to be in a position to make really original contributions to knowledge, though it does occasionally happen. More often we feel that we have something to offer that is generally called the “wisdom of experience,” but it is a gift that a younger generation is apt to look at askance. There is, however, one field in which old age has an undisputed prerogative, and that is in being able to recall happenings in which younger people could have had no share. I propose to-day to confine myself to this modest claim and I shall be content if the illustrating of it arouses some interest in you.