1st Edition

Corresponding Lives Mabel Dodge Luhan, A. A. Brill, and the Psychoanalytic Adventure in America

By Patricia R. Everett Copyright 2016
    360 Pages
    by Routledge

    360 Pages
    by Routledge

    An influential New York salon host and perpetual seeker of meaning, Mabel Dodge entered psychoanalysis in 1916 with A.A. Brill, the first American psychoanalyst, continuing until she moved to New Mexico in December 1917. In Taos, she met Antonio Luhan, the Pueblo Indian who became her fourth husband in 1923, a radical union that forever altered her turbulent life.

    From the beginning of her analysis until 1944, Mabel wrote to Brill and he replied, yielding 122 letters. No other such extensive, elaborate written conversations exist between patient and analyst. This book presents a narrative organized around these letters, featuring the turmoil in Mabel's relationships with others, most notably D. H. Lawrence, as well as her extraordinarily candid memoirs, both published and unpublished, inspired by Brill's fierce insistence upon constructive outlets. In her correspondence, as in life, Mabel was despairing, insightful, insecure, and talented, reporting to Brill her emotional states, seeking his advice. With warmth and frankness, he offered opinions, affection, and interpretations.

    Series Editor’s Foreword , Introduction , Illustrations , Early psychoanalysis in New York , From lonely child to salon host , A jealousy complex , Let's go and get married! , Lawrence: Is Taos the place? , An irrevocable step! , Lawrence again , Flirtations , Abreaction , Another analysis , Lorenzo , Intimate Memories , New York memories , Brill in Taos , Psychoanalysis again in New York , Back in Taos , The Jeffers affair , Money and a novel , Dreams, ups and downs , Notes Upon Awareness , Myron , A salon revived , Surgery in New York , Mabel’s birthday , Final years , After Brill’s death , Psycho-Analysis with Dr. Brill

    Biography

    Patricia R Everett