Subject
Re: QUERY: VN & Phyllis Greenacre
From
Date
Body
Dear Matt,
Not able to answer your question - but I do balk at your description of Phyllis Greenacre as the most prominent American psychoanalyst of any period whatsoever. Not just that I hadn't heard of her (let's wait and see what Jansy has to say about this) but there is little about her on the web. There were many well-known psychoanalysts who became prominent through their books (The Three Faces of Eve andThe Fifty Minute Hour spring to my mind), then there was the famous child psychiatrist Melanie Klein and analyst Karen Horney. In a list of 48 prominent psychoanalysts her, Greenacre's, name does not come up.
Now perhaps it's the case that there simply weren't that many American born Freudians, but I find that hard to believe given the popularity of analysis from the 20s through the 70s of Freudian analysis in this country. I believe Woody Allen still goes weekly, but couldn't swear to it. At any rate I would appreciate some back-up material to the claim. I wouldn't accept the New York Times's word for it either.
Carolyn
p.s. The gender of the person in question brings another question to mind which I address to the List: Did VN ever praise a woman for her professional achievement in any field? He's always struck me as basically a misogynist. But I could be wrong.
________________________________
From: "Roth, Matthew" <mroth@MESSIAH.EDU>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2013 7:58 AM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] QUERY: VN & Phyllis Greenacre
Dear list,
I wonder if anyone knows if VN ever had anything to say about one of his Cornell colleagues, Phyllis Greenacre. You can read her NY Times obit here:
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/25/obituaries/dr-phyllis-greenacre-95-a-psychoanalyst.html
Greenacre was the most prominent American-born Freudian psychoanalyst of the mid-century period. She was also the author of two books that may have garnered VN’s attention. Her book Trauma, Growth, and Personality (1952) was very influential. It contained a version of her previously published article, “The Prepuberty Trauma in Girls” (Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 1950), which Rachel Devlin has called “the most important analysis of a repressed adolescent Oedipus complex” (Relative Intimacy 35). These publications overlap with the period when VN was writing Lolita and Pnin, for which he consulted much of this type of literature (ridiculous as he found it). Even more offensive to VN must have been Greenacre’s trespass into the world of literary criticism. In 1952 she also published Swift and Carroll: A Psychoanalytic Study of Two Lives (International Univ. Press). This study of two of VN’s favorites is a classic of psychoanalytic
criticism, full of sublimely ridiculous speculation and overreading, as for instance when Greenacre posits that Swift displays “confusion of the sexes” by describing several times “low-hung breasts and nipples, which approximate the male genitalia” (94). (It may, however, be significant that in her discussion of Swift she mentions his senile fascination with mirrors and his “poor old man” remark—both of which may have worked their way into VN’s Pale Fire.)
Anyway, given her professorship at Cornell and her focus on these authors, it seems very likely to me that VN encountered her book, if not Greenacre herself. Which leads to my final speculation. In Lolita, one of Dolores’ friends is named Phyllis Chatfield. Dolores goes with her to Camp Q, which Charlotte tells will help her to “grow in many things—health, knowledge, temper. And particularly in a sense of responsibility toward other people” (AnLo 64). In VN’s Lolita screenplay, Camp Q becomes Climax Lake Camp, which Mrs. Chatfield describes as “the healthiest place in the world. Run by a remarkable woman who believes in natural education. Which, of course, is progressive education combined with nature.” Later in the book, Humbert runs into Mrs. Chatfield, “a short woman in pearl-gray, with a long, gray, slim plume to her small hat,” who wonders if Humbert did to Lolita what Frank LaSalle did to Sally Horner. Humbert regains the
upper hand by informing her about how, at Camp Q, “Charlie Holmes debauched there his mother’s little charges” (289-90).
My hypothesis is that Phyllis Chatfield (and her mother) may coyly refer to Phyllis Greenacre. Chatfield should be read as a double pun: chatte-field, where chatte is the French slang (equivalent to “pussy”), as well as chat meaning idle conversation (psychoanalysis was also known as “the talking cure”). In both cases “field” refers to profession or “field of study.” The Charlie Holmes incident can thus be seen as a veiled reference to “Prepuberty Trauma in Girls,” etc.
Matt
Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal" Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive
All private editorial communications are
read by both co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/