Book Chapter

We’ve lost Berlin

Rolnik, Eran J.

2012

Overview

As a movement, psychoanalysis almost ceased to function during the First World War. But between the end of the Great War in 1918 and the Nazi accession to power in Germany in 1933, it scored a series of successes. Freud's followers disseminated his teachings in Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Bombay, Chicago, and New York. The Berlin Psychoanalytic Polyclinic rose and declined over a period of fourteen years, beginning with its establishment in February 1920 and ending with the emigration of most of its staff in 1934. Funded predominantly from Max Eitingon's own resources, the Berlin Psychoanalytic Polyclinic offered poor sections of the population psychoanalytic help either free of charge or at reasonable prices. The Seventh Psychoanalytic Congress, held in 1920 in Berlin, decided to condition membership of psychoanalytic societies on certified psychoanalytic training. The older associations— those of Vienna and London— also set up teaching committees like the one in Berlin.

• Publisher: Routledge
• ISBN: 9781780490533, 1780490534