Jansy Mello: There were many European
psychoanalysts who moved to America during WWII, among them Karen Horney and
Erich Fromm. Melanie Klein was an Austrian who, like Freud, chose England as her
new home. Phyllis Greenacre was American born and I'm not familiar with the
development of psychoanalytic theories in America after this "diaspora" -
this is why I have nothing of value to add.
From VN's commentaries in
"Pale Fire," related to Oskar Pfister (who was as as Swiss as Carl Gustav
Jung)*, I got the vague impression that Nabokov's readings took place in the
early twenties or thirties, or focused mainly on European texts. The field for
conjectures, however, is wide open!
..............................................
* - Kinbote's note to line 929: "In my mind’s eye
I see again the poet literally collapsing on his lawn, beating the grass with
his fist, and shaking and howling with laughter, and myself, Dr. Kinbote, a
torrent of tears streaming down my beard, as I try to read coherently certain
tidbits from a book I had filched from a classroom: a learned work on
psychoanalysis, used in American colleges, repeat, used in American colleges.
Alas, I find only two items preserved in my notebook: / By picking the nose
in spite of all commands to the contrary, or when a youth is all the time
sticking his finger through his buttonhole... the analytic teacher knows that
the appetite of the lustful one knows no limit in his phantasies.(Quoted by
Prof. C. from Dr. Oskar Pfister, The Psychoanalytical Method, 1917, N.Y., p.
79) The little cap of red velvet in the German version of Little Red
Riding Hood is a symbol of menstruation./ (Quoted by Prof. C. from Erich Fromm,
The Forgotten Language, 1951, N.Y., p. 240.) /Do those clowns
really believe what they teach?" In PF, as I now see, VN
quotes Pfister and Fromm only indirectly ( ironically indicating Prof.
C and he references an American text curiously dated 1917 (this
still needs
chechking!).