Ralph R. Greenson

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Ralph R. Greenson (originally Romeo Samuel Greenschpoon , born September 20, 1911 in Brooklyn , New York; died November 24, 1979 in Los Angeles , California) was an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst .

Life

Greenson first studied medicine at Columbia University in New York City . In 1931 he moved to Switzerland and continued his studies in Bern . There he completed a psychoanalysis with Wilhelm Stekel and got to know Hildegard Treusch. Both married after returning to America. In 1937 he settled in Los Angeles as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. When the well-known psychoanalyst Otto Fenichel came into exile in Los Angeles in 1938 , Greenson continued his analysis with him, as did his student Frances Deri after Fenichel's death in 1945 .

With his book Technique and Practice of Psychoanalysis , Greenson wrote one of the standard works of psychoanalysis. It was published in 1967 under the title Technique and Practice of Psychoanalyses , and in 1986 in German translation. There is an overview of psychoanalysis as a treatment method with all the important aspects such as the technique of free association , interpretation, the forms of resistance , the working alliance , the transference and, above all, the various ways of dealing with all of this in treatment. The presentation is characterized by its practical relevance and richness of detail. So it describes z. For example, as forms of resistance, not only the patient's silence, the expressions in the affects and the posture, but also details such as: arriving late, missing hours, forgetting to pay, the lack of dreams, the patient is bored, the The patient has a secret, acting, frequent "happy" hours, the patient does not change, silent resistance (1986, pp. 77–82). As a result, the book established itself as a stimulus for practitioners and is still available today: The 9th edition in German was published in 2007. A second work was also translated into German and included in the series of standard works on psychoanalysis published by Klett-Cotta . It contains 25 essays, which are also provided with many practical examples. Three more articles appeared in the prestigious journal Psyche .

As a psychoanalyst in Los Angeles , Greenson treated some well-known personalities such as Tony Curtis , Frank Sinatra , Peter Lorre , Celeste Holm , Vincente Minnelli , Vivien Leigh, and Marilyn Monroe .

After his death, alleged tapes of Marilyn Monroe, which Monroe had given him as his patient, caused some press reports and were later made into a novel. This indiscretion came about because prosecutor John W. Miner, who was allegedly investigating Monroe's death, had also questioned Greenson in 1962. Assured of confidentiality , he had played tape excerpts from the last phase of the treatment for him during the conversations, of which Miner made detailed notes.

In 1992, when Monroe biographer Donald Spotto publicly suspected that Greenson was to blame for the death of his patient and had previously fallen in love with her, Miner broke the confidentiality agreement with Greenson's widow's consent to exonerate Greenson. Before Monroe's death on August 5, 1962, Greenson had prescribed the poisonous barbiturate nembutal from July 1 to August 4, and in March 1963 settled it with Monroe's estate administrator under the actual active ingredient pentobarbital as a sedative . Monroe took highly sedating medication for premedication , which Greenson knew in collaboration with her family doctor . Ultimately, she died of the additional pentobarbital, which had been banned since 1968. Under questionable conditions, pentobarbital is used today in euthanasia and as a poison cocktail in the USA for the first time from 2010 onwards as a third injection for the medical death penalty .

Publications in German

  • Technique and Practice of Psychoanalysis (Standard Works of Psychoanalysis) Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1986. (9th edition 2007: ISBN 978-3-608-94283-5 )
  • Psychoanalytic explorations (standard works of psychoanalysis) Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1993 ISBN 3-608-95090-7
  • with Milton Wexler: The Transfer Free Relationship in the Psychoanalytic Situation . In: Psyche 1971, Issue 3, pp. 206-0230
  • The working alliance and the transfer. In: Psyche 1966, issue 2, pp. 81-103
  • To the problem of empathy. In: Psyche 1961, issue 2, pp. 142–154

literature

  • Zvi Lothane : Dramatology in life, disorder, and psychoanalytic therapy: A further contribution to interpersonal psychoanalysis, In: International Forum of Psychoanalysis. Volume 18, H. 3, 2009, pp. 135-148; to Ralph R. Greenson pages 144 + 145.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Technique and Practice of Psychoanalysis Stuttgart 1986
  2. ↑ Psychoanalytic Investigations Stuttgart 1993
  3. ↑ Biography Ralph R. Greeson on IMDb
  4. ↑ Michel Schneider: Marilyn's last meeting. btb ISBN 978-3-442-75192-1
  5. ↑ Barbara Hans in Spiegel online from August 5, 2005, accessed on January 14, 2015
  6. ^ Fritz Göttler in Süddeutsche Zeitung of May 11, 2010, accessed on January 14, 2015
  7. ↑ Peter Schnug on MarilynMonroe.de, accessed on September 15, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Greenson, Ralph R.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Greenschpoon, Romeo Samuel (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst
DATE OF BIRTH September 20, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York, USA
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1979
Place of death Los Angeles , California, USA