https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2119-7215
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ABSTRACT
Shortly after World War II, psychoanalytic societies in Central Europe were gradually resuming their pre-war activities. Starting in 1945, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland saw the revival of their psychoanalytic circles which subsequently engaged in psychoanalytic knowledge transmission, especially in the face of the Communist state institutions’ growing disapproval of psychoanalysis. This article traces the history of the psychoanalytic movement’s rebirth in Central Europe. The author discusses the activities of Viennese, Budapestian, Praguian and Varsovian circles post-1945 in order to examine the practices of collective thinking and identify diverse models of the transmission of Freudianism. The attempt to explore the complex mechanisms of psychoanalytic knowledge dissemination in the immediate post-war period, both in its theoretical and practical dimensions, can contribute to a more profound understanding of the history of psychoanalysis in Central Europe after 1945. It also points to the significance of a more inquisitive approach to the internal dynamics of these intellectual circles which were forced to develop outside of state academic institutions due to socio-political reasons.
Les théories et pratiques de la psychanalyse en Europe centrale peu après la Seconde Guerre mondiale
Peu de temps après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les sociétés psychanalytiques en Europe centrale ont progressivement repris leurs activités d'avant-guerre. A partir de 1945, on a assisté, en Autriche, Hongrie, Tchécoslovaquie et Pologne, au renouveau des cercles psychanalytiques qui, par la suite, se sont engagés sur la voie de la transmission du savoir psychanalytique, à plus forte raison face à la désapprobation grandissante de la psychanalyse de la part des institutions étatiques communistes. Dans cet article, l'auteure retrace l'histoire de la renaissance du mouvement psychanalytique en Europe centrale. Elle passe en revue les activités des cercles de Vienne, Budapest, Prague et Varsovie, post-1945, afin d'examiner les pratiques de la pensée collective et d'identifier les différents modèles de transmission du freudisme. La tentative d'explorer les mécanismes complexes de diffusion du savoir psychanalytique en Europe centrale durant la période immédiate de l'après-guerre, d'un point de vue à la fois théorique et pratique, peut contribuer à l'approfondissement de la compréhension de l'histoire de la psychanalyse en Europe centrale, après 1945. De même qu'elle permet également de saisir l'importance d'une démarche consistant à questionner la dynamique interne de ces cercles intellectuels, contraints de se développer, pour des raisons socio-politiques, à l'extérieur des institutions académiques étatiques.
Theorie und Praksis der Psychoanalyse in Mitteleuropa unmittelbar nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg
Kurz nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg nahmen die psychoanalytischen Gesellschaften in Mitteleuropa ihre Aktivitäten allmählich wieder auf. Ab 1945 kam es in Österreich, Ungarn, der Tschechoslowakei und Polen zu einer Wiederbelebung der psychoanalytischen Zirkel, die sich in der Folgezeit mit der Weitergabe psychoanalytischen Wissens beschäftigten, insbesondere angesichts der zunehmenden Missbilligung der Psychoanalyse durch die kommunistischen staatlichen Institutionen. Dieser Artikel zeichnet die Geschichte der Wiedergeburt der psychoanalytischen Bewegung in Mitteleuropa nach. Die Autorin erörtert darin die Aktivitäten der Wiener, Budapester, Prager und Warschauer Kreise nach 1945, um die Praxis des gemeinschaftlichen Denkens zu untersuchen und verschiedene Modelle der Übermittlung der Freudianischen Psychoanalyse zu identifizieren. Der Versuch, die komplexen Mechanismen der psychoanalytischen Wissensverbreitung in der unmittelbaren Nachkriegszeit sowohl in ihrer theoretischen als auch in ihrer praktischen Dimension zu erforschen, kann zu einem tieferen Verständnis der Geschichte der Psychoanalyse in Mitteleuropa nach 1945 beitragen. Darüberhinaus wird versucht, die Bedeutung einer interessierten Annäherung an die innere Dynamik dieser intellektuellen Kreise zu zeigen, die sich aus gesellschaftspolitischen Gründen außerhalb der staatlichen akademischen Institutionen entwickeln mussten.
Teorie e pratiche della psicoanalisi in Europa centrale subito dopo la Seconda guerra mondial
Poco dopo la fine della Seconda guerra mondiale, le società psicoanalitiche in Europa centrale ripresero gradualmente le loro attività. A partire dal 1945 l'Austria, l'Ungheria, la Cecoslovacchia e la Polonia videro ricostituirsi i rispettivi circoli psicoanalitici, chiamati di lì a poco a impegnarsi nella trasmissione del sapere psicoanalitico anche a fronte di una crescente disapprovazione della psicoanalisi da parte delle istituzioni statali comuniste. Il presente articolo ripercorre la storia della rinascita del movimento psicoanalitico in Europa centrale. L'Autrice discute le attività dei circoli di Vienna, Budapest, Praga e Varsavia negli anni immediatamente successivi al 1945 allo scopo di esaminare le pratiche di pensiero collettivo e di individuare i diversi modelli di trasmissione del freudismo. Questa esplorazione dei complessi meccanismi di disseminazione del sapere psicoanalitico nel periodo dell'immediato dopoguerra può contribuire a comprendere più a fondo, e su un piano sia teorico sia pratico, la storia della psicoanalisi in Europa centrale dopo il 1945. Allo stesso tempo, una ricerca di questo tipo segnala anche l'importanza di indagare con maggiore attenzione le dinamiche interne di questi circoli intellettuali, costretti a svilupparsi al di fuori delle istituzioni accademiche statali per ragioni di ordine socio-politico.
Teorías y prácticas del psicoanálisis en Europa central inmediatamente después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial
Poco después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, las sociedades psicoanalíticas de Europa central reanudaron paulatinamente sus actividades. A partir de 1945, Austria, Hungría, Checoslovaquia y Polonia fueron testigos del resurgimiento de sus círculos psicoanalíticos, y pasaron a transmitir el conocimiento psicoanalítico, sobre todo ante la creciente desaprobación del psicoanálisis por parte de las instituciones del Estado comunista. Este artículo recorre la historia del renacimiento del movimiento psicoanalítico en Europa central. La autora aborda las actividades de los círculos de Viena, Budapest, Praga y Varsovia post-1945, a fin de analizar las prácticas del pensamiento colectivo e identificar los diversos modelos de transmisión del freudismo. El intento de explorar los complejos mecanismos de la difusión del conocimiento psicoanalítico en el periodo posbélico inmediato, tanto en su dimensión teórica como práctica, puede contribuir a una mayor comprensión de la historia del psicoanálisis en Europa central en la posguerra. También hace notar la importancia de un enfoque más inquisitivo respecto de la dinámica interna de estos círculos intelectuales que se vieron obligados a desarrollarse fuera de las instituciones académicas públicas por razones sociopolíticas.
Acknowledgment
This paper is the result of the research project conducted in Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary as a part of CEFRES's Mobility Grant Award (UMIFRE 13 CNRS-MEAE USR 3138 CNRS) and Diamond Grant Award funded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education for the PhD research project “Between Self-Analysis and Autobiography. Everyday Writing Practices of Freud's First Disciples,” no. DI2017 004647 (2018-2022).
Notes
1 It needs to be remembered that psychoanalysis – alongside Marxism – became a key inspiration for the Frankfurt School. Freudianism shaped the thought of many Frankfurt School representatives, understood as a critical social theory which they thought should be combined with Marxism. Notably, Max Horkheimer, Leo Löwenthal and Erich Fromm underwent analysis themselves; the latter became the only psychoanalyst among them after abandoning the School in 1939. While the Frankfurt School used psychoanalysis as a critical theory (detached from practice), leftist psychoanalytic circles of the interwar period (e.g. Siegfried Bernfeld, Wilhelm Reich and Otto Fenichel) perceived it as a revolutionary therapeutic means of effectuating real social change in the process of analysis.
2 Between 1901 and 1905 Aichhorn studied technical sciences at Wiener Technische Hochschule Abteilung für Maschinenbau. After 1908 he worked as a teacher.
3 Cf. “Background and development of the Freud-Klein controversies in the British Psycho-Analytical Society”, In: The Freud-Klein controversies 1941–45, ed. P. King and R. Steiner (Tavistock-Routledge, 1991), 9–36.
4 Letter sent by Thomas Aichhorn to Daniela Finzi (November 2021), Courtesy of the Freud Museum Vienna.
5 A strong faction of women psychoanalysts that had formed within the Budapest School played a major role in the development of psychoanalytic theories in Hungary before the outbreak of World War II (Borgos Citation2021).
6 At the Sándor Ferenczi House, materials can be found which document the efforts of Hungarian psychoanalysts to smooth the flow of ideas between them and the international psychoanalytic community. Among prominent analysts who left Hungary during the second wave of migration was Edit Gyömrői Ludowyk, István Hollós’s cousin and analyst to poet József Attila. She had joined the Hungarian movement after the Fifth Psychoanalytic Congress in Budapest (1918). In the 1950s, she settled in England, where she quickly gained renown (see: Archives of Sándor Ferenczi House, Materials under the name Gyömrői Edit: Section: correspondence). In the first few years of the rebirth of psychoanalysis in Hungary, economic difficulties significantly limited the access to the current state of psychoanalytic knowledge. For example, István Hollós wrote to members of the Amsterdam psychoanalytic milieu in 1953 complaining that he could not afford to purchase access to recent publications (see: Archives of Sándor Ferenczi House, Materials under the name Hollós István, Section: correspondence).
7 Among the formal members of the Study Group were Frances Deri, Annie Reich, Heinrich and Yela Löwenfeld, Otto Brief, Hannah Heilbron, Emanuel Windholz, Jan Frank, Richard Karpe, Kristine Olden and Elisabeth Gero-Heimann.
8 In psychoanalytic journals, Fenichel (Citation1953) published articles on subjects such as the relationship between psychoanalysis and metaphysics (1923), the castration complex (1925), the mechanisms of identification (1926), theories of childhood sexuality (1927), the analysis of dreams (1927), the psychology of transvestitism (1930), some specific forms of the Oedipus complex (1931), the psychology of jealousy (1935) and the death drive (1935).
9 The correspondence (35 letters from 18 February 1921 to 29 August 1929) survived thanks to Dosužkov, to whom Ossipov gave manuscripts.
10 Dobroczyński lists: Helena Renata Katzówna, Estera Markinówna, Józef Kretz-Mirski, Natalia Zylberlast-Zandowa, Henryk and Stanisław Higierowie, Władysław Matecki, Władysław Sterling, Abraham Wirszubski, Jan Władysław Nelken (Katyń).
11 Major examples include publications by Gustaw Bychowski, Tadeusz Bilikiewicz (except for his 1948 book on dreams) and Maurycy Bornstein (with the exception of his 1922 handbook).
12 Bilikiewicz was a prominent Polish psychiatrist post-1945 and a creator of the Gdańsk School. In the 1930s, he did original research on the dynamic of dreams and trained future psychoanalysts.
13 Recently published interviews with Malewski and Sokolik conducted in 1999 and 2011, along with a biographical essay about Łapiński, can be found in a book titled Jak feniks z popiołów. Odradzanie się psychoanalizy w powojennej i dzisiejszej Polsce edited by Ewa Kobylińska-Dehe and Katarzyna Prot-Klinger (Citation2021).
14 As Polish analyst and Malewski’s student Katarzyna Walewska (Kobylińska-Dehe and Prot-Klinger Citation2021, 86) recalls: “Almost a half of Europe had their analysis with Imre Hermann, Sándor Ferenczi’s student who lived to be 95 years old.” Her words are a good illustration of the dynamic development and interrelation of psychoanalytic knowledge in twentieth-century Europe.
15 Emphasizing the transnational development of psychoanalytic knowledge may have a particular significance for research on the history of psychoanalysis currently conducted in Poland. So far, numerous studies on the advancement of psychoanalysis since 1939 have focused on the reconstruction of the fates and theoretical ideas of individuals of Polish or Polish-Jewish backgrounds. However, it is worth remembering that some prominent Freudians were born in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian empire, spoke German, studied at non-Polish universities and quickly emigrated (e.g. Helena Deutsch, Siegfried Bernfeld, Steff Bornstein). Consequently – and despite the interest in psychoanalysis exhibited in Poland in the first three decades of the 1900s – Poland did not manage to establish psychoanalytic institutions or permanent structures for psychoanalytic training. Any attempts by scholars to organize the history of “Polish” psychoanalysis around the biographies of individual analysts that, in fact, had little impact on the emergence of any Freudian community in Poland thus require deeper reflection.