Karl Abraham

Karl Abraham (3 May, 1877 - 25 December, 1925) was an early German psychoanalyst, and a correspondent of Sigmund Freud.

Sigmund Freud announced Karl Abraham his 'best pupil.' Karl Abraham founded the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, and he was the president of the International Psychoanalytical Association from 1914 to 1918 and again in 1925.

Life

Karl Abraham was born in Bremen into a well-to-do, highly cultured, and well established Jewish family, in 1877. His father gave up being a teacher of Hebrew religion for economic reasons, and because of that Karl early abandoned the Jewish faith. His writings reflect no interest in religion, this being in marked contrast to his friend and mentor, Sigmund Freud. Thereafter, he became deeply interested in philology and linguistics, and he learned to speak five languages, read several others, and even analysed some patients in English.

Following the standard German preparatory education Abraham received his medical degree from the University of Freiburg, in 1901.

Karl Abraham's first position was at Burgholzi Mental Hospital in Zurich. He becam assistant to Eugen Bleuler and studied with Carl Gustav Jung, who in 1907 introduce him to Sigmund Freud. In that same year, Karl Abraham published his first paper, which began with the phrase "according to Freud." It was a prophetic beginning. Karl Abraham amon all Freud's disciples, never deviated from personal loyalty to Freud or from the classical principles of psychoanalysis.

Karl Abraham was soon alienated by Carl Jung's personality and by what he saw as Jung's threats to the scientific status of psychoanalysis. Despite Freud's pleadings the two men were never reconciled, and Karl Abraham soon left Zurich to establish a practice in Berlin. This practice flourished, and among his analysands were several who became respected analysts, including Karen Horney, Sandor Rado, Helen Deutsch, Melanie Klein, and two American physicians, James Glover and Edward Glover. Thus Karl Abraham brought to the fledgling psychoansalytic movement considerable prestige, and his contributions have lasted far beyond his own brief life.

Work

According to verified sources, Karl Abraham's total literary outputwas about 700 pages, consisting of four short books and forty-nine papers, all but eight of which dealth with the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. Nevertheless, Karl Abraham made important contributions to the psychology of sexuality, character development, myths, dreams, symbolism, and folk psychology. His most important theoretical contribution was his delineation of the etiology and dynamics of bipolar disorder.

Karl Abraham collaborated with Freud on the understanding of manic-depressive illness, leading to Freud's paper on Mourning and Melancholia in 1917. He was the analyst of Melanie Klein during 1924-1925, and of a number of other British psychoanalysts, including Edward Glover, James Glover, and Alix Strachey. He was a mentor for an influential group of German analysts, including Karen Horney, Helene Deutsch, and Franz Alexander.

Legacy

Karl Abraham is mainly remembered for two things — that he is a pioneer of German Psychoanalysis and that he founded the Berlin Society of Psychoanalysis in 1908.

One of Karl Abraham's key ideas is expresses in his description of psychological defense, A considerable number of persons are able to protect themselves against the outbreak of serious neurotic phenomena only through intense work. And this idea has become aphorismic in psychoanalytical understanding of ego defense.

When Freud was asked who was his best pupil, he promptly replied Karl Abraham.

In Civilization and Its Discontents (1930) Sigmund Freud wrote: "The communal life of human beings had, therefore, a two-fold foundation: the compulsion to work, which was created by external necessity, and the power of love... ". (S.E. XXI.101) It is appropriate to project and imply this sentiment to Karl Abraham's life and work. In other words, it can be referred toEros and Anank, i. e., Love and Necessity (?which constitute the foundations of any society). This approach can be referred to Karl Abraham's legacy. Karl Abraham truly live a life of loving and working. It can be named a life to love and to work.

Publications

• Selected Papers on Psycho-Analysis, Publisher: Karnac Books; 1997, ISBN 0-9501647-7-1

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology and Counseling. Second Edition. Edited by David G. Benner and Peter C. Hill. 1999. Baker Books, MI.
• Ben-David, J.and Collins, R. 1966. Social factors in the origin of a new science: The case of psychology. American Psychological Review, 31, 451-465.
• Blumental, A.L. (1970). Language and Psychology: Historical aspects of psychlinguistics. New York: John Wiley.
• Brennan, J.F. 1982. History and systems of psychology. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• Ferenczi, Sandor and Sigmund Freud. 1996. The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sándor Ferenczi, Volume 2: 1914-1919. Eva Brabant and Ernst Falzeder (eds.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674174194
• Ferenczi, Sandor & Sigmund Freud. 2000. The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sándor Ferenczi, Volume 3: 1920-1933. Eva Brabant and Ernst Falzeder (eds.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674002970
• Horney, K. 1939. New ways in psychoanalysis. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
• Keve, T. 2000. Triad: the physicists, the analysts, the kabbalists. London: Rosenberger & Krausz. ISBN 0953621901
• Koch, S. (1941). The logical character of the motivation concept. Psychological Review, 48, 15-38 and 127-154.
• Leahey, Th. H. 1991. A History of Modern Psychology. Englewood Cliff, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
• Paris, B. J. 1994. Karen Horney: a Psychoanalyst's Search for Self-understanding. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06860-3
• Quinn, S. 1987. Mind of Her Own: the Life of Karen Horney. New York: Summit Books. ISBN 0-333-46393-5
• Rubins, J. L. 1978. Karen Horney: Gentle Rebel of Psychoanalysis. New York: Summit Books.ISBN 0-8037-4425-0
• From: John Dorsey. An American Psychiatrist in Vienna.) "I asked the Professor to name his 'best pupil' and he replied promptly, Karl Abraham."

External links

• International Psychoanalytical Association

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Karl_Abraham  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Karl Abraham"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.