Abraham Brill

Abraham Arden Brill (October 12, 1874 – March 2, 1948) was an Austrian-born psychiatrist who spent almost his entire adult life in the United States. He was the first psychoanalyst to practice in the United States and the first translator of Freud into English.

Brill was born in Kańczuga, Austrian Galicia. He arrived in the United States alone and penniless at the age of 15. Working continuously to finance his studies, he eventually graduated from New York University in 1901 and obtained his M.D. from Columbia University in 1903.Ernest Jones commented with admiration: "He might have been called a rough diamond, but there was no doubt about the diamond". Brill spent the next 4 years working at Central Islip State Hospital on Long Island.

Brill married Dr. K. Rose Owen, with whom he had two children. He died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in March 2, 1948.

After studying with Eugen Bleuler in Zurich, Switzerland, he met Freud, with whom he maintained a correspondence until Freud's death in 1939. He returned to the United States in 1908 to become one of the earliest and most active exponents of psychoanalysis, being the first to translate into English most of the major works of Freud, as well as books by Jung. His first translation of Freud appeared in 1909 as Some Papers on Hysteria; and while the quality of his translations might at times be challenged, his overall contribution to the fostering of psychoanalysis in America cannot. He campaigned for academic recognition of his field, lectured at Columbia University, and became clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University. He maintained a psychoanalytic practice as well.

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