Alexandra von Wolff-Stomersee

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Coat of arms of those von Wolff
Stomersee Castle ( Lat .: Stāmerienas muižas pils)
The mother: Alice Baronin von Wolff, b. Barbi (1862–1948), painted by Philip Alexius de László
Prince Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in 1936

Alexandra (Alexandrine) Alice Marie Baronesse von Wolff from the house of Stomersee, also called "Licy", married Alessandra Tomasi di Lampedusa (born November 13, 1894 in Nice , France , † June 22, 1982 in Palermo , Italy ) was a German Baltic psychoanalyst . In 1932 she married Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa , the author of the novel " The Gattopardo ". In 1946 she introduced the " borderline " term, in 1950 she developed the theoretical basis of aggressive narcissism . In the early 1970s she coined the term “identificatory introjection”.

life and work

Alexandra Baronesse von Wolff was born on November 13, 1894 in Nice ( France ). She spent her childhood and youth in St. Petersburg ( Russia ), where her father, the German-Baltic Baron Boris von Wolff adH Stomersee (1850–1917), was court master of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II . Her mother was the famous Italian mezzo-soprano Alice Barbi . In 1918, one year after the death of her father, Alexandra married the German-Baltic Baron Andreas (André) Pilar von Pilchau (1891–1960), an internationally successful, homosexual banker. In the 1920s she completed a four-year training course at the Psychoanalytic Institute in Berlin , where she did a training analysis with Felix Boehm . In 1927, following a short stay in Vienna , she went to London , where her mother lived with her second husband, the Italian ambassador Pietro Tomasi della Torretta (1873–1962). Here she met his nephew Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa , Prince of Lampedusa and Duke of Palma (1896–1957) in 1925 , who later became famous for his novel “ The Cheetah ”. Despite the divorce from her first husband on July 19, 1932, he generously stood by her for life in emergencies. He even took over the maintenance costs for their Stomersee Castle without making any claims.

Shortly after their divorce, Alexandra von Wolff married Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa on August 24, 1932 in the Russian Orthodox Church in Riga ( Latvia ) and moved with him to Palermo , where she began to work as a psychoanalyst. Since 1929 she was in contact with the Italian psychoanalyst Edoardo Weiss and in 1936 became a full member of the “Società Psicoanalitica Italiana” (SPI). However, living with her mother-in-law on the family seat of Lampedusa turned out to be very difficult, partly because of the symbiotic bond between Giuseppe Tomasis and his mother. Alexandra returned to Latvia in 1933. After the occupation of Latvia by Soviet and later German troops, she finally had to give up Stomersee Castle, the ancestral seat of her family since 1826 , and finally left her home in 1942.

She settled in Rome and worked there as a psychoanalyst. Alexandra was one of the first training analysts of the "Società Psicoanalitica Italiana" (SPI), which was reconstituted in 1946, and was responsible for training candidates in Palermo , where she and her husband had lived in Via Butera since 1949. She was part of the editorial team of the "Rivista di Psicoanalisi", which has been published since 1955, and was President of the SPI from 1955 to 1959. Among her students was the Sicilian Francesco Corrao. Alexandra's thinking was in the tradition of Karl Abraham and the Berlin School . In her 1946 article "Sviluppi della diagnostica e tecnica psicoanalitica" ( German : "Developments in psychoanalytic diagnostics and technology"), she introduced the " borderline " term in an overview of psychoanalytic nosography . In 1950 she gave a lecture on the subject of "L'aggressività nelle perversioni" ( German : "The aggression in perversions") at the second SPI congress in Rome . Based on Freud's concept of the death instinct, she developed the theoretical basis of aggressive narcissism using the example of a case of necrophilia . In what is probably her best-known analysis, presented in the early 1970s in the psychoanalytic centers in Rome and Palermo, she dealt with a case of likanthropy, a patient who thought he was a werewolf . In it, based on Klein's concept of “projective identification”, she coined the neologism of “identificatory introjection”.

After the death of her husband in 1957, Alexandra devoted herself not only to her private practice but also to the publication of his work. She was honorary president of the “Centro di Psicoanalisi di Palermo” until she died of pneumonia on June 22, 1982 in her palazzo in Palermo .

Works (selection)

  • "Sviluppi della diagnostica e tecnica psicoanalitica" ( German : "The developments in diagnostic and psychoanalytic technology"), in: Psicoanalisi, 2, 1946.
  • “L'aggressività nelle perversioni” ( German : “The aggression in perversions”), presentation at the II. Congress of the “Società Psicoanalitica Italiana” (SPI) in Rome, 1950.
  • "Le componenti preedipiche dell'isteria d'angoscia" ( German : "The components of preoedipal anxiety hysteria"), in: Rivista di Psicoanalisi, 2, 1956, pp. 101-106.
  • "Necrofilia e istinto di morte: Osservazioni su un caso clinico" ( German : "Necrophilia and the death instinct : observations on a case study"), in: Rivista di Psicoanalisi, 3, 1956, pp. 173-186.
  • “La spersonalizzazione” ( German : “The depersonalization”), in: Rivista di Psicoanalisi, 6 (1), 1960, pp. 5–10.
  • "Il caso del licantropo" ( German : "The case of the werewolf"), in: Rivista di Psicoanalisi, 2, 2008, pp. 433–446.
  • “Il patto con il diavolo” ( German : “The pact with the devil”), in: Rivista di Psicoanalisi, 2, 2008, pp. 455–474.

family

Alexandra von Wolff-Stomersee's father was Boris von Wolff adH Stomersee (1850-1917). From 1879 to 1892 he was the cabinet secretary of Queen Olga of Württemberg and responsible for all non-profit and charitable foundations of the Queen in Württemberg , a. a. the Queen Olga pen . Later he was court master of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II. In 1894 he married the Italian violinist, composer and singer Alice Barbi (1858–1948). Boris von Wolff-Stomersee died on March 10, 1917 during the Russian Revolution in Petrograd ( Russia ). Alexandra was married twice: from 1918 to 1932 with Baron Andreas (André) Pilar von Pilchau (1891-1960) and from 1932 to 1957 with Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa . Both marriages remained childless. Alexandra had a sister named Olga (also called "Lolette", 1896–1984). She married the Italian diplomat Augusto Biancheri Chiappori (1879–1939) in Rome in 1927. They were the parents of the Italian diplomat and politician Boris Biancheri Chiappori (1930-2011).

literature

  • Accerboni, Anna Maria: Tomasi di Palma di Lampedusa-Wolff Stomersee, Alessandra. In Dictionnaire international de la psychanalyse (International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis) (2002). Edited by A. de Mijolla. Paris 2005, pp. 1807f.
  • Cardona, Caterina: Lettere a Licy. Un matrimonio epistolare. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa e Alessandra Tomasi Wolff, Palermo 1987
  • Corrao, Francesco: Alessandra Tomasi di Lampedusa (1895–1982). Riv psicoanal 28 (3), 1982, pp. 455-459
  • Gaddini, Eugenio: Psychoanalysis in Italy. In The Psychology of the 20th Century III: Freud and the Consequences (2). Zurich 1977, pp. 73-90
  • Gilmour, David: The Last Leopard. A Life of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. London 2003
  • Tomasi, G. Lanza: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Una biografia per immagini. Palermo 1998
  • Vigneri, Malde: La principessa di Lampedusa. Riv psicoanal 54, 2008, pp. 389-425
  • Vigneri, Matilde: Alessandra Wolff Stomersee Tomasi di Palma, principessa di Lampedusa. Archivi Storici della Pscicologia Italiana (March 14, 2014)

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Alessandra Tomasi di Lampedusa at psychoanalytikerinnen.de
  2. ↑ a b Urs Jenny: The prince and his leopard . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 2012, p. 142 ( online ).
  3. ↑ Hans Feldmann, Heinz von zur Mühlen (ed.): Baltic historical local dictionary, part 2: Latvia (southern Livland and Courland). Böhlau, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-412-06889-6 , p. 618.
personal data
SURNAME Wolff-Stomersee, Alexandra von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stomersee, Alexandra Alice Marie von Wolff adH; Stomersee, Alexandrine Alice Marie von Wolff adH; Lampedusa, Alessandra Tomasi di
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Baltic psychoanalyst
DATE OF BIRTH November 13, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Nice , France
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1982
Place of death Palermo , Italy