Béla Székely

Béla Székely, photo around 1950

Béla Székely (born June 1, 1892 in Bethlen , Hungary , † December 9, 1955 in Chascomús , Argentina ) was a Hungarian-Argentine publicist and psychologist .

After starting out in journalism, he turned to psychoanalysis in the 1920s and was a representative of Hungarian Freudo Marxism . In 1938 he emigrated to Argentina . There he was best known for the introduction of psychological test procedures and as the author of the psychological dictionary Diccionario enciclopédico de la psique (1950). Székely provided impetus for the establishment of psychological institutes and university courses in several cities in Brazil and in Santiago de Chile .

The time in Hungary

Journalist and Zionist activist in Transylvania

Béla Székely was born to Hungarian-Jewish parents in Bethlen, Transylvania in 1892 . He studied in Nagyvarad and Budapest and worked as a journalist in both cities. In 1918 he founded the Zionist newspaper Új Kelet (New East) with Erno Márton , the first edition of which appeared on December 19, 1918 in Koloszvár (Cluj). Until 1919 he acted as its editor. There he also wrote articles for the left-wing newspaper Keleti Újság (Journal of the East) and was a co-founder of the Zionist 5 Órai Újság (5 o'clock newspaper).

In the 1920s he was the organizer and secretary of the Zionist girls' organization AVIVA, which was active in 16 countries as early as 1929. He was also one of the founders and secretary of the Association of Writers of the Transylvanian and Banat Minorities and was active in the National Association of Transylvanian Jews. On behalf of the Jewish National Fund , he organized the Union of Hungarian Jews for Palestine (Magyar Zsidók Pro Palesztina Szövetsege). He was the editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and has translated several books on Jewish subjects into Hungarian.

In his own literary work, too (until the mid-1920s), he mainly devoted himself to Jewish subjects. In the following time he was still politically active and also worked for the magazines Documentum and Munkat, which were published by the writer and artist Lajos Kassák .

An article by Székely, which appeared in the magazine "A Toll" (The Spring) in 1929, caused a stir. In it he describes a conversation with Stefan Zweig , who had just returned from a trip to Russia and reported positively about his experiences. The question of why there was no writer in Hungary who would rise up against the reaction in the country, so to speak, put Székely Zweig in the mouth, whereupon the magazine was banned from street sales in 1929 and charges were brought.

Turning to psychology

In 1925 Székely's first psycho-pedagogical work was published in Budapest. It is a practice-oriented and generally understandable educational guide that was published in the 1930s under the title “Your child. Guide for parents and educators about modern child rearing on a psychological basis ”also appeared in Germany. Here Székely shows himself to be a representative of a pedagogy that is oriented towards the needs and level of development of the child and which refers to the concept of mentalité primitive by the French ethnologist Lucién Lévy-Brühl . His description of child development is strongly influenced by Alfred Adler's individual psychology , but also uses concepts from psychoanalysis such as the castration and Oedipus complexes. Even here, the eclectic integration of different theoretical approaches typical of Székely can be seen, which was to bring him criticism and opposition from dogmatists of all stripes throughout his life. Little is known about Székely's practical training in psychoanalysis and applied psychology , for which he later became known in Argentina. According to the Argentine psychologist and educator Alfredo Calcagno (1891–1962), Székely worked with William Stern and Oskar Wiegemann in Hamburg, with Karl and Charlotte Bühler and Alfred Adler in Vienna, and with Paul Ranschburg and István Máday in Budapest.

Freudo Marxism in Theory and Practice: The 1930s in Budapest

Strongly influenced by Wilhelm Reich and the Sex Pole movement, Székely also looked for ways to combine Marxism and psychoanalysis . At the beginning of the 1930s he took part in this controversial discussion with lectures and specialist articles and advocated expanding the depth psychological analysis to include a social interpretation.

In practical work, too, he followed Reich's position, who saw the suppression of sexuality as one of the most important and most effective weapons in the class struggle, and between 1932 and 1938 he worked, among other things, in a counseling center for sexual problems in youth run by workers' organizations. His book "Die Sexualität der Kinderjahre", published in Budapest in 1935, is based on experiences from this clinical practice and combines approaches from psychoanalysis, sexology , Marxism and an educational pedagogy under the ideal of psycho-hygiene , which is also great for his work in Argentina Should get meaning.

Another example of Székely's epistemological openness was the magazine “Emberismeret” (knowledge of human nature), which he published together with István Kulcsár in the 1930s. In its five issues, which appeared between 1934 and 1936, it represented Hungarian Freudomarxism on the one hand , but was also distinguished by the fact that authors from the most varied of origins and directions had their say in the respective themed issues.

Even if Székely turned mainly to psychology in the 1930s, he continued to journalistically deal with political and social issues. His book "Az antiszemitizmus története" (Anti-Semitism), published in 1936, caused a sensation in which he interpreted the phenomenon historically, sociologically and psychologically. Even if Paul Harmat states that “his attempt to combine drive psychology, group theory and Marxist-political-economic analysis […] vulgar Marxism emerged victorious”, it deserves recognition as an early example of dealing with the Anti-Semitism with the inclusion of a psychoanalytic perspective.

Emigration to Argentina

The beginnings

Béla Székely and his wife Margit (née Blum) arrived on October 10, 1938 on the ocean liner "Neptunia" from Trieste in the port of Buenos Aires . He also brought his library with him to Argentina with extensive holdings of psychoanalytic and humanistic writings. Within a few months he mastered the Spanish language and made contact with the local professional community, to which he was introduced by the Spanish psychologist Emilio Mira y López as a “follower of the Vienna psychoanalytic school and an expert on the writings of Alfred Adler”. Until 1940 Székely had an intensive lecture activity, among other things in the Sociedad de Psciología de Buenos Aires and in the "Colegio Libre de Estudios Superiores". There he was in contact with the well-known left-wing psychologists and psychiatrists of the time, including Gregorio Berman, Enrique Pichon Riviere, Jorge Thenon and Emilio Troise.

His works "Dein Kind ..." and "Der Antisemitismus" appeared in Spanish translation in 1940, the latter in an extended edition in which he was well informed about current developments in Europe and also a chapter on the history of the Jews in America in particular Consideration of Argentina. In 1940 the first informal meeting to found a psychoanalytical association in Argentina took place in Buenos Aires, in which Béla Székely was the only non-doctor to attend. However, Székely's view of psychoanalysis, influenced by Wilhelm Reich, was unable to assert himself against Angel Garma's claim to leadership, who wanted to achieve rapid recognition of the Argentine Association by the International Psychoanalytical Association , or IPA for short, and who programmatically leaned heavily on Ernest Jones , the then President the IPA oriented.

Just a few months after the first meeting there was a falling out, with the result that Székely left the group and did not take part in the institutionalization of psychoanalysis in Argentina, which took place in 1942 with the establishment of the Asociación Psicoanalítica Argentina (APA).

The "Instituto Freud"

For Székely, an opportunity for practical activity arose from the influx of emigrants and refugees from Germany and Central Europe, which had also assumed massive dimensions in Argentina since the mid-1930s. In 1940 he founded the “Instituto Freud”, an institution for child and adolescent psychology, which was committed to the concepts of mental hygiene and was financed by the Jewish aid organizations ORT and OSE. The history of this institute, which was probably the first of its kind in Argentina, if not in Latin America, has not yet been researched. However, references to the work of the Instituto Freud can be found in the letters of the actress Sadie Müllereisert, née emigrated from Germany. Leviton, who worked as an employee of Székely from August 1941 to 1942. Accordingly, the institute devoted itself to psychological diagnostics, advice and training and was not only active at its own headquarters near the port, but also in various other facilities in Buenos Aires. The work with émigré children, which took place in a kind of psycho-pedagogical counseling center in the German-speaking Pestalozzi School in Buenos Aires , took up a lot of space, at least in the first few years after it was founded.

Contrary to what the name suggests, psychoanalysis played a rather subordinate role in clinical practice. More important was the individual psychology of Alfred Adler and the diagnosis with the Rorschach test , which Székely made known through the training of students and employees as well as through several publications in Argentina.

Stay in La Plata

From 1946 to 1947 Székely worked in La Plata , where he founded the “Clínica de conducta Victor Mercante” and introduced the Rorschach test to the Instituto de Minoridad, which is part of the Ministry of Health .

Science and journalism

In 1940 Székely's first written in Spanish appeared: El psicoanálisis: teoria - aplicación , in which he laid down his view of psychoanalysis . With the book “El niño neurótico. Introducción a su reeducación y psicoterápia “, he made a name for himself with another book at the interface between psychology and educational science. In 1946 he made an excursion into industrial science with “De Taylor a Stajanov”. He processed his experiences in the theory and application of psychological test procedures in the standard work "Los Tests", which was published in two volumes from 1946 to 1948 by Verlag Kapelusz and was the central reference on this topic in Spanish-speaking America until the 1960s.

Székely was also the editor and author of the first Spanish-language psychology dictionary “Diccionario enciclopedico de la psique”. It was published in Buenos Aires in 1950; the second edition, updated by Székely and his wife Stefanie, was published shortly after Székely's death in 1955.

further activities

• Secretary of the JOINT Aid Committee for Hungarian- Speaking Jews in Argentina (1945–1946).
• Editor-in-chief of the Hungarian-language newspaper Jövö ("Future") published in Buenos Aires (1946–1950)

The last years of life

On October 23, 1950, Székely was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Universidade do Salvador (Bahía, Brazil). In 1951 he traveled to Europe, where he exchanged ideas with Lipót Szondi in Zurich, whose “fate analysis” interested him, and with Harald Schultz-Hencke in Berlin . Between 1950 and 53 he stayed in Brazil a total of four times, where he conducted courses in various cities ( Rio de Janeiro , São Paulo , Porto Alegre ), designed courses, and founded institutes and curative educational advice centers. In 1954 he was finally appointed to the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago de Chile to found a psychological institute, of which he became the first director. Béla Székely died of heart failure on December 9, 1955 at the age of 63 in a hotel in the resort of Chascomús ( Province of Buenos Aires ).

Works

• Vajúdó ország: Könyv az épülő Palesztínáról. Kadima, Cluj 1925.
• Middle man ártatlan! Fraternitas Ny, Cluj 1925.
• Szedzsera: kis somér-dráma. Korvin Ny, Vienna 1926.
• A Te gyereked ...: a modern gyermeknevelés kézikönyve. Bibliotéka, Budapest 1934.
• A gyermekévek sexualitása. Pantheon, Budapest 1935.
• Az antiszemitizmus pszichoanalízise. Kellner Ny, Budapest 1936.
• Az anti-Semitism és története. Tabor, Budapest 1936.
• Your child. Guide for parents and educators about modern child rearing on a psychological basis. Deuticke, Leipzig / Vienna 1937.
• Del niño al hombre: Guia para los padres y maestros sobre la educación de los niños: moderno tratado de psicologia infantil. Claridad, Buenos Aires 1940.
• El antisemitismo: su historia, su sociologia, su psicologia; trad. Olivier Brachfeld. Claridad, Buenos Aires 1940.
• El psicoanálisis: teoria - aplicación. Colegio Libre de Estudios Superiores, Buenos Aires 1940.
• The emigrant child. In: Jewish newsreel. 2, Nº 48, (March 21, 1941) Buenos Aires 1940.
• La Evolución Sexual de la Infancia: tratado psicoanalítico Sobre la Educación y la Higiene Sexual. Claridad, Buenos Aires 1941.
• El niño neurotico: introduccion a su reeducación y psicoterapia. El Atenéo, Buenos Aires 1943.
• De Taylor and Stajanov. Calomino, La Plata 1946.
• Lot tests: manual de pruebas psicométricas de inteligencia y de aptitudes. Kapelusz, Buenos Aires 1946.
• Teoria y practica del psicodiagnostico de Rorschach. El Atenéo, Buenos Aires 1947.
• Lot tests: manual de pruebas psicométricas de inteligencia y de aptitudes, 2nd ed. Con correcciones y ampliaciones. Kapelusz, Buenos Aires 1948.
• Diccionario enciclopedico de la psique. Claridad, Buenos Aires 1950.
• El proceso de Nuremberg. Las investigaciones psicológicas del punto de vista médico legal. Archivo de Medicina Legal, Buenos Aires 1950.

literature

• Enrique Acuña: Béla Szèkely: la excepción judía y el psicoanálisis. In: Resonancia y silencio. Psicoanálisis y otras poéticas. Edulp, Buenos Aires 2009, ISBN 978-950-34-0594-9 , pp. 199-207.
• Enrique de Gandía: Prologo. In: Béla Székely (ed.): Diccionario encyclopédico de la psicque. 2nd Edition. Claridad, Buenos Aires 1958, pp. 7-19.
• Germán García: Béla Székely, un analista a la deriva. In: El psicoanálisis y los debates culturales. Ejemplos Argentina. Paidos, Buenos Aires 2005, ISBN 950-12-6550-1 .
• Paul Harmat: Freud, Ferenczi and the Hungarian Psychoanalysis. With an introduction by Béla Grunberger. Diskord, Tübingen 1988.
• Johanna Hopfengärtner: An encounter: the psychoanalysts Marie Langer and Béla Székely in Argentina. In: Zwischenwelt. Literature / resistance / exile. 28, No. 3, Vienna 2011, pp. 34–36. ISSN  1606-4321
• Johanna Hopfengärtner: Apuntes para and biografía de Béla Székely. In: Revista de Psicología de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata. No. 12, 2012, p. 187. ISSN  0556-6274
• Ramón León: Rumbo al nuevo mundo. Cuatro Psicólogos de Europa oriental en la história de la psicología en América del Sur. In: Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología. 29, No. 1, 1997, pp. 9-34.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biographical information from: Johanna Hopfengärtner: Apuntes para and biografía de Béla Székely. In: Revista de Psicología de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata. No. 12, (2011/12), pp. 188-190.
2. ^ Paul Harmat: Freud, Ferenczi and the Hungarian psychoanalysis. With an introduction by Béla Grunberger. Diskord, Tübingen 1988, p. 151.
3. ^ R. León: Rumbo al nuevo mundo. Cuatro Psicólogos de Europa oriental en la historia de la psicología en América del Sur. In: Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología. 29 (1), Bogotá 1997: Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, p. 19.
4. ↑ Hopfengärtner, op.cit, pp. 191–192.
5. ↑ P. Harmat: Freud, Ferenczi and ... 1988, p. 184.
6. ↑ P. Harmat: Freud, Ferenczi and ... 1988, p. 151.
7. ↑ Hopfengärtner, op.cit., Pp. 193f.
8. ↑ Germán García: Béla Székely, un analista a la deriva. In: El psicoanálisis y los debates culturales. Ejemplos Argentina. Paidos, Buenos Aires 2005, p. 197.
9. ↑ On Székely's first years in the Argentine emigration Hopfengärtner, op.cit, pp. 193–199.
10. ↑ The letters in question were edited in: Klaus Völker (ed.): I am traveling for some time. Sadie Leviton, actress, emigrant, friend of Helene Weigel and Bertolt Brecht. Transit, Berlin 1999. Székely is called "Szasz" in Leviton's letters. According to Hopfengärtner (op. Cit., P. 199), however, it is proven to be Béla Székely.
11. ↑ German Garcia: Béla Székely, un analista a la deriva. In: El psicoanálisis y los debates culturales. Ejemplos Argentinos. Paidós, Buenos Aires 2005, p. 199.
12. ↑ On Székely's long-forgotten contribution to the history of psychoanalysis in Argentina Germán García: Béla Székely. 2005, pp. 197-210.