Else Frenkel-Brunswik

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Else Frenkel-Brunswik (born August 18, 1908 in Lemberg , Austria-Hungary ; died March 31, 1958 in Berkeley , California ) was an Austrian-American psychoanalyst and psychologist.

Life

She was born as the second of three daughters to the Jewish department store owner Abraham Frenkel and his wife Helene Frenkel. The family fled to Vienna in 1914 because of a pogrom . After graduating from high school in 1926, she studied mathematics and physics, then psychology at the University of Vienna and trained as a psychoanalyst . After graduating as Dr. phil. In 1930 (“The Association Principle in Psychology”) she worked from 1931 to 1938 with Karl and Charlotte Bühler at the Psychological Institute of the University of Vienna (department for biographical studies) and was a lecturer. Because of Austria's "annexation" to the National Socialist German Reich in 1938, Else Frenkel had to flee again; she emigrated to the USA. In the same year she married the psychologist Egon Brunswik .

Else Frenkel-Brunswik received American citizenship in 1938. From 1939 to 1958 she was Research Associate at the Institute of Child Welfare, Department of Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, from 1944 to Lecturer, and from 1944 to 1947 Senior Staff Member of the social psychologist R. Nevitt Sanford and the psychiatrist and psychologist Daniel J. Levinson led the Berkeley Public Opinion Study (University of California) on anti-Semitism as the main topic . In the studies of prejudice (Studies in Prejudice) that had begun together with the emigrated Frankfurt Institute for Social Research , Sanford became research director in 1944 together with Theodor W. Adorno . Else Frenkel-Brunswik played a key role, especially in the construction and analysis of the interviews. All in all, she made a significant contribution to the research on the authoritarian personality , which is considered to be one of the great pioneering studies of modern social research.

From 1947 on, Frenkel-Brunswik held various positions, including a. Research Psychologist and Psychotherapist at the Cowell Memorial Hospital at the University of California, Associate Research Psychologist at the Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California (see keyword: Industrial relations ). Participation in numerous research projects, etc. a. also at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo. After the death of her husband Egon Brunswik (1955), health problems increased, which led to suicide in 1958.

plant

In her socio-psychological studies, Frenkel-Brunswik highlighted a typical characteristic: the intolerance of ambiguity ( ambiguity tolerance ). This means the inability to endure ambiguity. Some people cannot bear ambiguous and contradicting facts and they are unable to put themselves in the shoes of other people in the sense of a change of perspective. A rigid, inflexible, compulsive attitude then prevails; Overtones and complex issues irritate and are rejected. This defensive tendency is closely related to the negative attitude towards "different things", to authoritarianism and ethnocentrism , i. H. the rejection of the (culturally) foreign.

Honor

In 2012, Frenkel-Brunswik-Gasse in Vienna- Donaustadt (22nd district) was named after her.

Fonts (selection)

  • Else Frenkel, Edith Weisskopf: Desire and duty in the structure of human life (= psychological research on the life course. Ed. By Charlotte Bühler and Else Frenkel. Volume 1). Gerold & Co., Vienna 1937.
  • Else Frenkel-Brunswik: Motivation and behavior. In: Genetic Psychology Monographs. Vol. 26, 1942, pp. 121-265.
  • Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel J. Levinson, R. Nevitt Sanford: The Authoritarian Personality. New Harper and Brothers, New York 1950.
  • Else Frenkel-Brunswik: Selected papers. Edited by Nanette Heiman and Joan Grant. International Universities Press, New York 1974.
  • Else Frenkel-Brunswik: Studies on the authoritarian personality. Selected writings (= library of social science emigrants. Vol. 3). Edited and introduced by Dietmar Paier. Nausner and Nausner, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-901402-04-7 .
  • Else Frenkel-Brunswik, R. Nevitt Sanford: The anti-Semitic personality. A research report. In: Ernst Simmel (Ed.): Antisemitism. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1993, ISBN 3-596-10965-5 , pp. 119-147 (earlier version in Journal of Psychology. Vol. 20, 1945, pp. 271-291).
  • Nathan W. Ackerman , Theodor W. Adorno , Bruno Bettelheim , Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Marie Jahoda , Morris Janowitz , Daniel J. Levinson, Nevitt R. Sanford: The authoritarian character. Volume 2: Studies on Authority and Prejudice. De Munter, Amsterdam 1969, ISBN 3-88535-341-5 .
  • Dietmar Paier: Else Frenkel-Brunswik 1908–1958. In: Archives for the History of Sociology in Austria: Newsletter. No. 13, June 1996, pp. 9-11 ( online ).

literature

  • Gerhard Benetka: Frenkel-Brunswik, Else. In: Brigitta Keintzel, Ilse Korotin (ed.): Scientists in and from Austria. Life - work - work. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-205-99467-1 , pp. 190–194.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Frenkel-Brunswik, Else
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frenkel, Else
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American psychologist and psychoanalyst
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Lviv , Galicia
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1958
Place of death Berkeley , California