A small, belated point.  Robert Galatzer-Levy noted the
          oddness of Masson's part ing shot in "Final Analysis" (pub
          1990) at the IPA & the Canadian & San Francisco Psa. Soc.,
          viz, that he had "fallen from grace" & would "no longer have
          any function within psychoanalys is.  Everything would be
          removed from me."  & that he then quotes a letter expelling
          him from the IPA for nonpayment of dues.  I had initially
          thought it possibly self-explanator y (thus omitted by
          Masson) that prominent analysts are not expelled from
          analytic associations for non-payment of dues (especially
          three months worth--I've received magazine subscriptions for
          lo nger than three months despite non-payment of renewal).
          However, after reading the Malcolm book , I find the case
          more puzzling.  "In the Freud Archives" was published in
          1984 (hence withou t any knowledge of Masson's later claim),
          & there Malcolm says that in Nov. of 1982 (a bout a year
          after the debacle on August-Nov. 1981), Masson told her that
          he imagined he woul d resign from the IPA, "though I think
          I'll wait until I can get the most effect out of it.  O r
          wait until they try to throw me out, which shouldn't be long
          now, except that they'd be frightened o f the publicity."
          (p52)  Later, she writes that Masson kept in touch after
          Nov. 1982 & that in Sep tember of 1983 almost a year later,
          he was expelled from the Canadian Psa. Soc. for non-payment
          of dues, & thus automatically from the IPA (p163).  This
          makes more sense logistically, bec ause presumably the
          authorizing body was the Canadian Society--yet, on the other
          side, his being thrown own there was quite unlike anything
          one would expect solely for non-payment of dues for three
          months & I still presume pretextual.  It seems that Masson
          (entirely unconscious ly I assume) went through a process of
          chewing ravenously, & spitting out psychoanalysis, & t hat
          the denouement, though perhaps more consulsive, painful, &
          thrilling than he ever co uld have imagined, was fitting,
          having even a fated quality.  One might call him an intel-
          lectual bulimic.  What I find most troubling in a certain
          way is that Masson was a person of great vitality, energy,
          persistence, & flair--not to mention charm--& that
          psychoanalysis failed to help him--his self & other
          destructiveness was perhaps even fueled & sharpened by his
          encounte r with it.  I believe he went into the field
          unselfcomprehendingly, that he was fascinated by & even
          phantasized a "cure" from it, & that psychoanalysis failed
          him as miserably as he failed it.  & I do think, moreover,
          that though he is intellectually crude & reductive, he also
          made important discoveries & that, without him, the
          landscape would be different.
 
                                    Jeffrey Gordon