"SENT A SEISMIC SHOCK WAVE THROUGH THE FOUNDATIONS OF PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY": FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF FREUD'S BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, 1922

FREUD, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. London, Vienna: International Psycho- Analytical Press [Hogarth Press], 1922. Octavo, original gilt-stamped green cloth, uncut and partially unopened, original dust jacket.

First edition in English, first printing, of Freud's controversial work, "ranks as an equal among firsts on the list of classics of psychoanalytic literature."

Beyond the Pleasure Principle "sent a seismic shock wave through the foundations of psychoanalytic theory" (Akhtar, On Freud's Beyond the Pleasure Principle, 2). "The experience of the Great War doubtless contributed to [Freud's] formulation of the grimmest of all psychoanalytic concepts, the Death Instinct, which he announced to the world in Beyond the Pleasure Principle" (Stanford 1991, 61). "In dealing with such ultimate problems as the origin of life and the nature of death Freud displayed a boldness of speculation which was unique in all his writings; nothing that he wrote elsewhere can be compared with it" (Jones II, 287). It "introduces the final phase of Freud's theory of mind: the repetition-compulsion, previously noted as a clinical phenomenon, is now described as an instinct; the fundamental dichotomy between Eros (life instinct) and the death instinct is here first identified" (Norman F98). "Of all of Freud's texts, this watershed work ranks as an equal among firsts on the list of classics of psychoanalytic literature… The implications of Beyond the Pleasure Principle... were, in fact, monumental" (Tomlinson in Akhtar, 73). Published in 1920 in Germany as Jenseits des Lustprincips. Composed of unsold sheets (printed in Vienna) of the International Psych-Analytical Press. When rights were acquired by Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Hogath Press in 1924, they were provided with the unsold sheets for the series' initial six titles, along with new title pages and dust jackets. First printing with no mention of Hogarth Press on title page; first issue dust jacket with George Allen and Unwin imprint. Grinstein 128. Small annotation in an unidentified hand to one line (p. 3).

Book fine with only faint foxing, mainly to preliminaries; lightest edge-wear, slight toning to edges, spine of extremely good dust jacket.