Otto Fenichel

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Otto Fenichel (born December 2, 1897 in Vienna , † January 22, 1946 in Los Angeles ) was an Austrian psychoanalyst .

life and work

Otto Fenichel began his medical studies in Vienna in 1915. Fenichel came into close contact with Sigmund Freud at an early age, and he attended his lectures between 1915 and 1919. In 1920, at the age of 23, he became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association .

Memorial plaque in Württembergische Strasse 33 in Berlin, from the series Mit Freud in Berlin

In 1922 Fenichel moved to Berlin, where he lived until 1933. A memorial plaque - a glass plaque from the series “ With Freud in Berlin ” - has been referring to his life and work there since 2007.

In Berlin, Fenichel received his specialist training in neurology and psychiatry from Karl Bonhoeffer and Richard Cassirer at the Charité . In 1931 he published a two-volume theory of neuroses; Later expanded and updated in American exile, this work established Fenichel's reputation as an "encyclopedist of psychoanalysis".

In 1924, together with Harald Schultz-Hencke , Fenichel founded the so-called “children's seminar” at the Berlin Psychoanalytical Institute , an association of younger analysts and training candidates that served informal discussion. During his time in Berlin he founded an informal group of Marxist- oriented psychoanalysts (1929). During his emigration - to Oslo in 1934 , to Prague in 1935 , to Los Angeles in 1938 - he organized contact between around a dozen group members scattered around the world with the help of top-secret circulars intended only for an “inner circle”. These circulars, which have only been published since 1998, are among the most important documents on the problematic history of psychoanalysis between 1934 and 1945, especially on the problem of Freud's exclusion from the International Psychoanalytic Association of Wilhelm Reich , who was initially a member of the group .

The concept of organ neurosis goes back to Otto Fenichel . Fenichel took the view that in the conversion hysterical form of organ experience the connections with fantasized social relationships were preserved. In the case of functional disorders that are purely vegetative, however, they would be completely or partially lost.

Fenichel, who had achieved a reputation in Europe as a “polyhistor of psychoanalysis” due to his writings and extensive reviews, could not really gain a foothold in American society. He died shortly after his main work "The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis" was published.

Fonts

  • The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis , 3 vols., New York: WW Norton 1945 (German ed. And translated by Klaus Laermann: Psychoanalytische Neurosenlehre , 3 volumes, Olten / CH: Walter-Verlag 1974ff; new edition 2005: Gießen: Psychosozial-Verlag. ISBN 3-89806-468-9 )
  • The Collected Papers , 2 vols., New York: WW Norton 1954, dt. Ed. u. partly trans. v. Klaus Laermann: Essays , 2 volumes, Olten / CH: Walter-Verlag 1979, 1981; Reprint Gießen: Psychosozial-Verlag 1998 (does not correspond exactly to the English edition 1954)
  • Psychoanalysis and Society. Essays , ed. v. Christian Rot (d. I. Helmut Dahmer ), Frankfurt / M .: Roter Druckstock 1972
  • 119 circular letters , ed. v. Johannes Reichmayr and Elke Mühlleitner, 2 volumes, Frankfurt / M .: Stroemfeld, 1998
  • Problems of psychoanalytic technology (library of psychoanalysis), Gießen: Psychosozial Verlag, 2001
  • Psychoanalytic investigations into the mode of action of gymnastics. (1927) In: Johannes Reichmayr (Ed.): Psychoanalysis and gymnastics. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2015, pp. 19–74

Journal articles (selection)

In: The Socialist Doctor

  • Discussion remarks on the Götz presentation (sexual miserable forms ...). Volume IV (1928), Issue 3-4 (December), pp. 24-25 digitized

In: International Medical Bulletin

  • About psychoanalysis, war and peace. Volume II (1935), Issue 2–3 (February – March), pp. 30–40 digitized . To this the answer (the comment) from Edward Glover. Volume II (1935), Issue 5-6 (May-June), pp. 76-77 digitized
  • Sigmund Freud - 80 years. Volume III (1936), Issue 4 (May), pp. 49-53 digitized

literature

  • Johannes Reichmayr, Michael Giefer: Otto Fenichel complete bibliography 1916–2015. In: Johannes Reichmayr (Ed.): Psychoanalysis and gymnastics. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2015, pp. 153–204
  • Russell Jacoby: The Repression of Psychoanalysis , New York: Basic Books 1983 (German translation by Klaus Laermann: Die Verdrängung der Psychoanalyse , Frankfurt / M .: Fischer-Taschenbuch 1990 ISBN 3-596-10518-8 )
  • Elke Mühlleitner: I - Fenichel. The Life of a Psychoanalyst in the 20th Century. Vienna: Paul Zsolnay Verlag 2008, ISBN 978-3-552-05429-5
  • Fenichel, Otto. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 7: Feis – Frey. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-22687-X , pp. 28-35.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Memorial plaque for Otto Fenichel in Berlin
  2. ↑ Psychoanalysis in exile, Otto Fenichel and the secret documents of the left Freudians (PDF; 394 kB) by Sabine Richebacher, Neue Zürcher Zeitung from 20./21. March 1999
  3. ↑ Otto Fenichel: 119 circulars
  4. ↑ Cf. on this and Fenichel's role from Reich's point of view. The exclusion of Wilhelm Reich from the International Psychoanalytic Association
  5. ↑ Hoffmann, Sven Olav and Hochapfel, G .: Neurosenlehre, psychotherapeutic and psychosomatic medicine. [1999], Compact textbook, Schattauer, Stuttgart 6 2003, ISBN 3-7945-1960-4 , page 255

Web links

Commons : Otto Fenichel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Fenichel, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian psychoanalyst
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1946
Place of death los Angeles