Kurt R. Eissler

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Kurt Robert Eissler (born July 2, 1908 in Vienna , † February 17, 1999 in New York City ) was an American psychoanalyst of Austrian origin. In 1936 he married Ruth Selke, who after the marriage took on the double name Eissler-Selke. She was a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and emigrated from Germany to Vienna in 1933 after the National Socialists came to power.

In the German-speaking world, Eissler became known to a larger audience primarily through his large study on Goethe; in the USA he became known to the wider public as the strict custodian of the Sigmund Freud Archive, which he co-founded, and an essay is remembered in analyst circles from him to the technique of psychoanalysis (Eissler 1953), which achieved canonical status by drawing the technical consequences of ego psychology . In addition to his clinical work, Eissler was also an important historian of psychoanalysis. Often perceived primarily as a defender of orthodoxy, Eissler was also an early critic of the medicalization of psychoanalysis.

Life

Few details are known about Eissler's life. Eissler completed his studies in psychology with a dissertation on deep vision with Karl Bühler in 1931 at the University of Vienna. In 1936 he married Ruth Selke. Eissler received psychoanalytic training from August Aichhorn , Paul Federn and Richard Sterba . Eissler became Aichhorn's employee working with neglected young people and began to publish as a psychoanalyst. In 1938 he became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association.

After the annexation of Austria , Eissler fled to the USA with his wife; his brother Erich was murdered in Auschwitz . Eissler first worked in Chicago, in 1943 he volunteered for the US Army, worked in the US Army Medical Corps and qualified as a psychiatrist in 1944. After the war he settled in New York. In 1949 he became a member of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and worked as a training analyst and control analyst.

In 1951, Eissler founded the Sigmund Freud Archives in New York together with Ernst Kris , Heinz Hartmann , Bertram Lewin and Hermann Nunberg , of which he was secretary until 1985. This archive may contain a. Thousands of hours of interviews with people who knew Freud. In close coordination with Anna Freud , Eissler ensured that many documents were kept under lock and key for a long time, which was not least to protect former patients. However, Eissler's discretion was interpreted by some critics as an attempt to conceal information that might be detrimental to Freud's reputation or to psychoanalysis. It was in this context that a controversy arose with Jeffrey Masson over Freud's so-called seduction theory. Eissler dedicated his last posthumously published book to this topic. He also objected to other publications that were incorrectly criticizing Freud from Eissler's point of view (cf. the book about Tausk versus Paul Roazen , Eissler 1971).

Eissler adored Sigmund Freud .

Ruth Eissler-Selke, who had worked as a child psychiatrist and training analyst in the USA, died in 1989, so that Eissler left no relatives when he died in 1999.

Publications (selection)

  • The psychiatrist and the dying patient , New York: International Universities Press, 1955, dt. Der dying patient. On the psychology of death , Stuttgart / Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1978
  • Goethe: A psychoanalytic study 1775–1786 , Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1963, German Goethe. A psychoanalytic study 1775–1786 , Basel / Frankfurt am Main: Stroemfeld / Roter Stern, Volume 1: 1983, Volume 2: 1985
  • Medical orthodoxy and the future of psychoanalysis , New York: International Universities Press, 1965
  • Talent and genius: The fictitious case of Tausk contra Freud , New York: Quadrangle Books, 1971
  • Freud and Wagner-Jauregg before the commission for the survey of military breaches of duty , Vienna: Löcker, 1979, new edition 2006
  • Psychological aspects of the correspondence between Freud and Jung , Stuttgart / Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1982
  • Victor Tausk's Suicide , International Universities Press (March 1983), ISBN 0-8236-6735-9 (10), ISBN 978-0-8236-6735-2 (13)
  • Leonardo da Vinci , German Leonardo da Vinci: psychoanalytic notes on a riddle , Basel / Frankfurt am Main: Stroemfeld / Roter Stern, 1992
  • Fall of man , German death drive, ambivalence, narcissism , Frankfurt am Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1992
  • Three Instances of Injustice , Madison: Int. Univ. Press. 1993
  • Freud and the seduction theory: A brief love affair , New York: International Universities Press, 2001 (published posthumously)
  • Lasting relevance: Contributions to theory and technology , Frankfurt am Main: Brandes & Apsel, 2016

In addition, Eissler published countless articles.

Secondary literature

  • Eissler, Kurt. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 6: Dore – Fein. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-598-22686-1 , pp. 237-250.
  • Article "Eissler, Kurt R." In: Personenlexikon der Psychotherapie , ed. by Gerhard Stumm, Alfred Pritz, and Paul Gumhalter, Springer: Wien, 2005, pp. 112–114.
  • Lucifer-Amor, volume 40, "Kurt R. Eissler", Tübingen: edition diskord, 2007; Volume 43, "Kurt R. Eissler II - Work and Effect", 2009.
  • Aaron H. Esman: "Kurt R. Eissler (1908-1999)". In: International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 2000, 81: 361-362 (obituary).
  • EE Garcia: “KR Eissler. A personal note, Yearbook of Psychoanalysis “Vol. 42 (2000), pp. 9-12.
  • Sandor Gifford: “Freud and the seduction theory: A brief love affair. By Kurt R. Eissler. New York: International Universities Press. Pp. 520, 2001 ”, International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 2003, 84: 187-192 (review).
  • Edith Kurzweil : “For Kurt R. Eissler”. In: Psyche, 43rd Jhrg., 1989, pp. 1059-1070.
  • Hans-Martin Lohmann : “How harmless can psychoanalysts be? Notes on the repressed thanatology ”, in: ders. (Ed.): The unease in psychoanalysis. A pamphlet , new edition Giessen: Psychosozial-Verlag 1997 [EA 1983], pp. 50–59 (Lohmann names Eissler as one of the few analysts who have opposed the taboo of Freud's death drive hypothesis in mainstream psychoanalysis).
  • Janet Malcolm : In the Freud Archives , New York Review Books Classics, 2002 (EA 1984), German father, dear father ...: from d. Sigmund Freud Archive , Frankfurt am Main / Berlin: Ullstein, 1986 - intimate portrait of the personality.
  • Janet Malcolm: The Lives They Lived: Kurt Eissler, b. 1908, Keeper of Freud's Secrets , The New York Times, Magazine, January 2, 2000 (obituary).
  • Paul Roazen : On the Freud Watch , London: Free Association Books, 2003.
  • RS Wallerstein: Development and modern transformation of (American) ego psychology. In: Psyche. Journal for Psychoanalysis and its Applications , 55th year, 2001, pp. 650–684.

proof

  1. ↑ Information about Ruth Eissler-Selke (1906-1989) in the Biographical Lexicon of Psychoanalysts in Europe
  2. ↑ Kurt R. Eissler: Goethe. A psychoanalytic study 1775–1786. Edited by Rüdiger Scholz, in conjunction with Wolfram Mauser and Johannes Cremerius. From the American by Peter Fischer (vol. 1) and Rüdiger Scholz (vol. 2). Stroemfeld Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1986, ISBN 3-87877-195-9
  3. ↑ Kurt R. Eissler: The effect of the structure of the ego on psychoanalytic technique (1953) / engl. Text from the Italian page PSYCHOMEDIA

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Eissler, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eissler, Kurt R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American psychoanalyst
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 17, 1999
Place of death New York City