Marie H. Briehl and Rosetta Hurwitz: Pioneers in North American Child Psychoanalysis

ABSTRACT

This paper is a tribute and exploration of the contributions of two hidden but important figures in the history and development of North American child psychoanalysis, Marie H. Briehl and Rosetta Hurwitz. These early child psychoanalytic pioneers were the author’s great-aunts. They trained as young lay analysts in Vienna with Anna Freud and other key Viennese psychoanalysts between 1924 and 1930, and were among the original group to study with Ms. Freud. The author considers various significant aspects of her great-aunt’s childhoods that played a large part in the spirit of their determination to go to Vienna. She looks at their beginnings in a large socialist family, later as teachers, at their passion for the development of children, and their recognition of the limitation of pure pedagogy in reaching certain children in the classroom. The author takes the reader through Marie’s and Rose’s studies in Vienna and the difficulties of acceptance as lay analysts upon their return to New York City. While Rose practiced quietly in New York, this paper highlights Marie’s contributions to child psychoanalysis including the development of one of the first child analytic training programs in Los Angeles, as well as her strong belief in the qualities necessary to do good child psychoanalytic work.

KEYWORDS:

• History of child psychoanalysis in North America
• Marie H. Briehl and Rosetta Hurwitz
• child psychoanalysts who trained with Anna Freud
• history of child psychoanalysis in Los Angeles
• qualities of a good child psychoanalyst

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sandra E. Cohen

Sandra E. Cohen, Ph.D., is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of California and in private psychoanalytic practice in Beverly Hills. Her area of specialization is childhood trauma including sexual abuse and severe neglect with presenting symptom pictures of persistent depression, eating disorders, anxiety and panic, dissociative states, and perverse behaviors. Dr. Cohen published a film essay on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in the IJPA in 2010 and recently contributed a chapter in Pedro Almodovar: A Cinema of Desire, Passion and Compulsion, edited by Arlene Kramer Richards and Lucille Spira, IP Books, 2018. She currently writes for various publications. On her blog, Characters on the Couch, Dr. Cohen uses her clinical experience to analyze the human problems of characters in film and television.