Finding Margarethe Lutz

Abstract

The editors of this series of papers review their efforts to ascertain the identity of Margarethe Lutz and the provenance of the accounts she provided of her consultation with Sigmund Freud. There is considerable evidence that she conveyed fundamentally the same account, with emphasis on certain critical features of her experience, in many interviews and writings, privately and publicly. The editors briefly highlight the main points provided in each of the seven papers discussing this remarkable consultation and acknowledge the considerable assistance they have received from many individuals in investigating, verifying, and bringing these important papers to publication.

Keywords:

• Sigmund Freud
• psychoanalysis
• Margarethe Lutz

Acknowledgments

This entire project has depended on essential assistance and commitment from a number of individuals. We acknowledge their contributions here. Ursula Mangoubi of Newton, Massachusetts, and Kenneth Kronenberg of Cambridge, Massachusetts, have provided critical and beautifully literate translations. Beyond legal advice, Heather Florence of Providence, Rhode Island, has been a consistent, sage sounding board for essential decisions. Heinz Janisch of Vienna has been extremely helpful in providing transcripts, summaries, and audio files of his interviews with Margarethe Lutz. Peter van den Dungen of Lightcliffe, England, coordinator of the International Network of Museums for Peace, took great interest in our project and a great deal of time to search his files and find the signature name of the sculptress of the von Suttner plaque, Margarethe Lutz. Andreas Pecha of Vienna searched the files of the Vienna Peace movement to find the original commissioning of the plaque by his father, the late Ernst Pecha. The staff of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna diligently searched their records. Christine Dohler of Hamburg, Germany, devoted time to discuss her interview with, and personal impressions of, Margarethe Lutz, as well as providing permission to translate and quote from her article. Wolfgang Morscher of the University of Innsbruck, Austria and webmaster at SAGEN.at gave freely of his time in making necessary contacts and translating communications. The photographer Elfriede Hochhe provided permission to reproduce her photograph of Margarethe Lutz in this publication. Barbara Boterberg, of Jerusalem, Israel, generously invited us to her home and spent several hours talking about her mother and the family story. Her sister, Silvia Phipps of Twaine Harte, California, provided essential information. Steven Kuchuck, of New York City, the editor-in-chief of this journal (as well as one of the authors of the papers here) has provided consistent moral and material support, and wise advice, for this project. Anja Behm of New York City and associate editor of this journal provided timely advice and support. We appreciate Rachel Sopher for extraordinary speed reading and acute editing. The several authors of these papers have responded with tolerance and creativity to our editorial comments and suggestions. Finally, we appreciate not only the permission Mr. Peter Roos of Marktheidenfeld am Main, Germany, and Vienna, Austria, has given us to translate his article in Die Zeit but also, and especially, his ability to capture in words the remarkable meeting of Margarethe Lutz and Sigmund Freud.

Jonathan Slavin

Miki Rahmani-Yerushalmy

Jerusalem and Boston, August 2016

Notes

¹ Photograph of Margarethe Lutz with her plaque of Bertha von Suttner. Photograph by Elfriede Hochher. © Elfriede Hochher, 2008. Permission to use this photograph was granted to the journal Psychoanalytic Perspectives by Elfriede Hochher.

² In addition, some of this material (with some of the other authors) has been presented to the Mental Health Staff of the Israel Defence Forces, December 2015; The Student Counseling Services, Hebrew University, July 2016; and the National Institute for the Psychotherapies, New York, September 2016. Further presentations are planned for the Israel Chapter of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, January 2017; and a later date in 2017 at Oxford University, United Kingdom.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jonathan H. Slavin

Jonathan H. Slavin, PhD, ABPP, is Clinical Instructor in Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Adjunct Clinical Professor, Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis, New York University; Founding Director, Tufts University Counseling Center (1970–2006); Former President of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39), American Psychological Association; and Founding President, Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Slavin’s published work has focused on fundamental human elements in the psychoanalytic relationship including love, sexuality, desire, truthfulness, and personal agency, and their role in the repair of the mind.

Miki Rahmani

Miki Rahmani, MA, is Chief Psychologist, South Jerusalem Mental Health Center, and is a former longtime member on the Faculty of the School of Education, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. In more than 35 years of clinical teaching and consulting she has taught annual courses, seminars, and workshops on the supervisory relationship, the supervisory process in clinical work and in education, and the treatment process.