Friendship and Fratricide
{{Short description|1967 book by Meyer A. Zeligs}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Friendship and Fratricide, an Analysis of Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss
| image = File:Friendship_and_Fratricide.png
| caption = Title page for Friendship and Fratricide, an Analysis of Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss (1967)
| author = Meyer A. Zeligs
| language = English
| pub_date = 1967
| pages = 476
| publisher = Viking
}}
Friendship and Fratricide, an Analysis of Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss is a 1967 book by psychoanalyst Meyer A. Zeligs.{{cite journal|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1967/02/23/dangerous-acquaintances-2/|title=Dangerous Acquaintances|first=Meyer|last=Schapiro|date=23 February 1967|accessdate=19 March 2019|journal=The New York Review of Books}}{{Cite journal |jstor = 26443026|title = The Strange Case of the Erstwhile Friends|journal = The Virginia Quarterly Review|volume = 43|issue = 4|pages = 664–672|last1 = Dilliard|first1 = Irving|year = 1967}}{{cite web|url=https://www.denverpost.com/2007/08/31/shame-on-outers-not-on-the-outed/|title=Shame on outers, not on the outed|author=Bob Ewegen |date=31 August 2007|website=Denverpost.com|accessdate=19 March 2019}} In his work, Zeligs argued that Whittaker Chambers was a psychopathic personality who had framed Alger Hiss.{{cite web|url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/friendship-and-fratricide-an-analysis-of-whittaker-chambers-and-alger-hiss-by-meyer-a-zeligs/|title=Friendship and Fratricide: An Analysis of Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss, by Meyer A. Zeligs|first=Walter|last=Goodman|accessdate=19 March 2019}}
Background
Zeligs was a 1928 graduate of the University of Cincinnati and a 1932 graduate of its Medical School, before serving as medical officer in the US Navy during World War II.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/03/22/archives/dr-meyer-zeligs-psychoanalyst-wrote-book-defending-alger-hiss.html|title=Dr. Meyer Zeligs, Psychoanalyst, Wrote Book Defending Alger Hiss|date=22 March 1978|accessdate=19 March 2019|website=Nytimes.com}}{{cite web|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/03/30/comment-4855|title=Comment|first=A. J.|last=Liebling|date=23 March 1963|accessdate=19 March 2019|website=Newyorker.com}}
On August 3, 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a former U.S. Communist Party member, testified under subpoena before the House Un-American Activities Committee that Alger Hiss, an American government official, had secretly been a Communist while in federal service.{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol44no5/html/v44i5a01p.htm|title=The Alger Hiss Case — Central Intelligence Agency|website=Cia.gov|accessdate=19 March 2019|archive-date=20 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190520032949/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol44no5/html/v44i5a01p.htm|url-status=dead}}
Although Chambers refused to see Zeligs, the author did correspond with Hiss.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/25/archives/alger-hiss.html|title=Alger Hiss|first=Robert|last=Sherrill|date=25 April 1976|accessdate=19 March 2019|website=Nytimes.com}}
Reaction
Friendship and Fratricide was widely panned.{{cite journal|url=https://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=PAQ.037.0448A|title=Friendship and Fratricide. An Analysis of Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss: By Meyer A. Zeligs, M. D. New York: The Viking Press, Inc. 476 pp.|first=B. C.|last=Meyer|date=19 March 1968|journal=Psychoanal. Q.|volume=37|pages=448–452|accessdate=19 March 2019}}{{Cite journal | doi=10.1080/00107530.1987.10746205|title = Psychoanalytic Biography| journal=Contemporary Psychoanalysis| volume=23| issue=4| pages=577–592|year = 1987|last1 = Roazen|first1 = Paul}}{{cite journal|title=The psychobiography Trap|first=R.|last=Story|date=1 April 1968|journal=PsycCRITIQUES|volume=13|issue=4|doi=10.1037/0010137}} In 1978, The New York Times reflected that the work "stirred controversy when it was published in 1967 with the conclusion that Whittaker Chambers was a psychopathic personality".{{cite web|url=https://home.isi.org/ongoing-campaign-alger-hiss-sins-father|title=The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father|date=8 October 2014|website=Intercollegiate Studies Institute: Educating for Liberty|accessdate=19 March 2019}}
Writing in the Archive of General Psychiatry, one contemporary reviewer described the book as "almost impossible to put down".{{cite journal|url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/489337|title=Friendship and Fratricide: An Analysis of Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.|first=Roy R.|last=Grinker|date=1 April 1967|journal=Archives of General Psychiatry|volume=16|issue=4|pages=512–514|accessdate=19 March 2019|doi=10.1001/archpsyc.1967.01730220124017}} Another reviewer characterized the work as a novel genre in an article entitled "The Potential of Psychoanalytic Biography".{{Cite journal |jstor = 26302596|title = The Potential of Psychoanalytic Biography: Zeligs on Chambers and Hiss|journal = American Imago|volume = 26|issue = 3|pages = 233–241|last1 = Bychowski|first1 = Gustav|year = 1969|pmid = 4907588}}
The Harvard Crimson opined that work "only further complicates the already hopelessly complicated questions surrounding Alger Hiss's alleged crime"{{cite web|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/3/4/the-strange-case-grows-stranger-pbibt/|title=The Strange Case Grows Stranger|publisher=The Harvard Crimson|website=www.thecrimson.com|accessdate=19 March 2019}} Time reviewed the book under the title "Slander of a Dead Man"{{cite journal|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,840867,00.html|title=Books: Slander of a Dead Man|date=10 February 1967|accessdate=19 March 2019|journal=Time}} In the 1999 work "The Strange Case of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers", the author argues that "Zeligs was
addressing himself to a genuine psychological riddle in writing Friendship and Fratricide."