FREUD FOR THE 21ST CENTURY AND ARTICLE BY LIVERYMAN IAN GRANT AND COURT ASSISTANT OLIVER GADSBY

How do we read Freud in the 21^st century? He died before World War II had barely begun. The Interpretation of Dreams was published in 1900. Yet Freud’s deep insights into human behaviour remain completely current. What has changed is the social, medical, political, intellectual, artistic, scientific and economic world. Since the first edition of Freud’s collected works was co-published by the Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis (IOPA) in the 1960s, 60 years of Freud scholarship, debate, and fierce argument required a new, deep examination of James Strachey’s original translation of Freud’s work.

The 24-volume print and digital work, 30 years in the making, had an academic launch in New York in June 2024 and heads towards the major public launch at the Freud Museum in London on September 19^th 2024, followed by a public conference at UCL on the 21st.

Ian’s consultancy, Creative Structure Ltd, advises the Institute of Psychoanalysis (IOPA) on their publishing programmes. In 2019 he issued to global academic publishers a request for proposals to co-publish the work with the IOPA. Oliver responded on behalf of Rowman & Littlefield Inc (R&L), where he was then President of the company’s Academic and Professional division. R&L won the beauty contest, and Oliver and Ian supported their organisations in negotiating the global publishing agreement and in overcoming the many technical and copyright challenges presented by such a large project.

Full publishing details are on the website of R&L’s academic division (recently acquired by Bloomsbury). Details of the UCL conference, open to the public, are here.