The reception of Dr Ludwik Jekels' "apostolic activity" to promote psychoanalysis in Poland before the outbreak of World War I. Part 1.

The paper sets out to present Dr Ludwk Jekels' activity for the development of psychoanalysis in Poland between 1909 and 1914. Ludwik Jekels was the first Polish psychoanalyst and the first translator of Sigmund Freud's works into Polish. Throughout numerous years he gained his psychoanalytic skills in the classical Viennese school of psychoanalysis while attending lectures conducted by Freud himself. The article analyses a number of previously unknown and unpublished historical sources (e.g., Ludwik Jekels' memories and correspondence as well as daily newspapers and scientific journals). The research allowed the current knowledge of Dr Jekels' activity and achievements in his early career as a psychoanalyst to be significantly complemented. The first part of the paper presents briefly Dr Jekels' professional development and the causes why he gained interest in psychoanalysis. A little-known period of psychoanalytic activity prior to his first public presentations in Krakow and Warsaw in 1909 was reconstructed. The article includes a detailed review of Jekels' first lectures on psychoanalysis, including one which has been completely unknown to the historians of medicine. The varied reactions of the Polish neurologists and psychiatrists' to Jekels' promoting activity and psychoanalysis itself were critically assessed.