Hermann Nunberg

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Hermann Nunberg (born January 23, 1884 in Bendzin , Russian Empire ; died May 20, 1970 in New York City ) was a Polish psychiatrist , psychoanalyst and student of Sigmund Freud , who worked in Vienna from 1914 and emigrated to the United States in 1933.

life and work

Nunberg grew up in his birthplace, in Czestochowa and Krakow , where he also began studying medicine . He went to Zurich , heard lectures by Eugen Bleuler and CG Jung , received his doctorate in 1910, joined the psychoanalytic group and worked in hospitals in Schaffhausen and Bern .

In 1912 he returned to Cracow, where he worked at the university clinic there and, during the summer months, at the private clinic of the analyst Ludwig Jekels in Bistrai near Bielitz. At the beginning of the war he moved to Vienna and worked there at the psychiatry of the university clinic under Julius Wagner-Jauregg and his successor Otto Pötzl . Nunberg became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Association (WPV) in 1915 and completed a training analysis with Paul Federn . In 1925 he became a training analyst and control analyst - u. a. by SH Foulkes and Lili Roubiczek-Peller - and the WPV appointed him secretary that same year. In 1929 he married Margarete Rie . In 1931 he taught at the University of Pennsylvania , and in 1932 his most important book appeared, the general theory of neuroses on a psychoanalytic basis:

“This book [...] contains the most complete and conscientious account of a psychoanalytic theory of neurotic processes that we currently have. Anyone who is concerned with simplification and smooth handling of the problems in question will hardly be satisfied with this work. But whoever prefers scientific thinking, knows to appreciate it as a merit, whom speculation, the guiding rope of experience, never abandons and who can enjoy the beautiful variety of psychic events, will appreciate this work and study it diligently. "

- Sigmund Freud : Preface to Nunberg's general theory of psychosis from 1932

Nunberg was a Social Democrat and decided in 1933 - due to the political changes in Germany and Austria - to emigrate to the United States , first to Pennsylvania, and in 1934 to New York. As early as 1934 - in vain at the time - he tried to persuade Sigmund Freud to emigrate. In 1936 he turned down the offer of a lectureship in Vienna.

In 1940 Nunberg became a member of the New York Psychoanalytical Society , in 1950 its president. In 1960 he gave the Freud Anniversary Lecture at the New York Academy of Medicine. Nunberg took part in numerous international congresses and had been committed to the implementation of training analysis as a professional requirement of the psychoanalyst since 1918 .

Nunberg made important contributions to the history of psychoanalysis . In his will, Paul Federn decreed that the minutes in his possession of the so-called Wednesday Society from the founding time of psychoanalysis should be published jointly by his son Ernst Federn and von Nunberg, which then also happened from 1962 in multi-volume editions in several languages. Together with Kurt Eissler , Heinz Hartmann , Ernst Kris , and Bertram Lewin , Nunberg founded the Sigmund Freud Archives in 1951 , which led to the establishment of the Freud Collection at the Library of Congress .

Important publications

  • General theory of neuroses on a psychoanalytic basis . With a preface by Sigmund Freud . Huber, Bern 1932, 1959, 1971; Principles of Psychoanalysis , International Universities Press, New York 1955
  • (Ed., Together with Ernst Federn ): Protocols of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Association . 4 volumes.
    • English: Minutes of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, New York: International Universities Press 1962–1976
    • S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1976–1981
    • New edition. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89806-598-6
    • French: Les premiers psychanalystes . Gallimard

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elke Mühlleitner: Biographisches Lexikon der Psychoanalyse, Tübingen 1992, pp. 236f.
  2. ^ Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing
  3. ^ Sigmund Freud Archives , homepage
personal data
SURNAME Nunberg, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nunberg, Herman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American psychoanalyst
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Bendzin
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1970
Place of death New York City