Abraham Brill



Abraham Arden Brill (1874–1948) was an American psychiatrist. He was born in Austria, and graduated from New York University, in 1901, M.D. Columbia, 1903. He came to the United States alone at the age of 13.

After studies with C. G. Jung in Switzerland, 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. He taught at New York Univ. and Columbia, was a practicing psychoanalyst.

Famously, he consulted with E. L. Bernays on the subject of womens' smoking. He described cigarettes as "torches of freedom" to women, a theme which Bernays exploited. Working for the American Tobacco Company, on March 31, 1929 Bernays sent a group of young models to march in the New York City Easter Parade. He then advised the press that a group of debutant marchers would light "torches of freedom" to signal their independence from male domination. On his signal, the models lit Lucky Strike cigarettes in front of the eager photographers, thus helping to break the taboo against women smoking.

Publications include

 * Psychoanalysis: Its Theories and Practical Application (1912)
 * Fundamental Conceptions of Psychoanalysis (1921)