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Karl Abraham

November 23, 2023

Karl Abraham (German: [ˈaːbʁaham]; 3 May 1877 – 25 December 1925) was an influential German psychoanalyst, and a collaborator of Sigmund Freud, who called him his 'best pupil'.[1][2]

Karl Abraham
Born3 May 1877
Bremen, German Empire
Died25 December 1925 (1925-12-26) (aged 48)
Berlin, Weimar Republic
Scientific career
FieldsPsychiatry

Life edit

Abraham was born in Bremen, Germany. His parents were Nathan Abraham, a Jewish religion teacher (1842–1915), and his wife (and cousin) Ida (1847–1929).[3] His studies in medicine enabled him to take a position at the Burghölzli Swiss Mental Hospital, where Eugen Bleuler practiced. The setting of this hospital initially introduced him to the psychoanalysis of Carl Gustav Jung.[citation needed]

Collaborations edit

In 1907, he had his first contact with Sigmund Freud, with whom he developed a lifetime relationship. Returning to Germany, he founded the Berliner Society of Psychoanalysis in 1910.[4] He was the president of the International Psychoanalytical Association from 1914 to 1918 and again in 1925.

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 the years 1924–1925, and of a number of other British psychoanalysts, including Edward Glover and Alix Strachey. He was a mentor for an influential group of German analysts, including Karen Horney, Helene Deutsch, and Franz Alexander.

Karl Abraham studied the role of infant sexuality in character development and mental illness and, like Freud, suggested that if psychosexual development is fixated at some point, mental disorders will likely emerge. He described the personality traits and psychopathology that result from the oral and anal stages of development (1921).[5]

Abraham observed his only daughter, Hilda, reporting on her reaction to enemas and infantile masturbation by her brother. He asked that secrets be shared with him but he was careful to respect her privacy and some reports were not published until after Hilda's death. Hilda was later to become a psychoanalyst.[6]

In the oral stage of development, the first relationships children have with objects (caretakers) determine their subsequent relationship to reality. Oral satisfaction can result in self-assurance and optimism, whereas oral fixation can lead to pessimism and depression. Moreover, a person with an oral fixation will present a disinclination to take care of him/herself and will require others to look after him/her. This may be expressed through extreme passivity (corresponding to the oral benign suckling substage) or through a highly active oral-sadistic behaviour (corresponding to the later sadistic biting substage).[5]

In the anal stage, when the training in cleanliness starts too early, conflicts may result between a conscious attitude of obedience and an unconscious desire for resistance. This can lead to traits such as frugality, orderliness and obstinacy, as well as to obsessional neurosis as a result of anal fixation (Abraham, 1921). In addition, Abraham based his understanding of manic-depressive illness on the study of the painter Segantini: an actual event of loss is not itself sufficient to bring the psychological disturbance involved in melancholic depression. This disturbance is linked with disappointing incidents of early childhood; in the case of men always with the mother (Abraham, 1911). This concept of the prooedipal “bad” mother was a new development in contrast to Freud’s oedipal mother and paved the way for the theories of Melanie Klein.[7]

Another important contribution is his work “A short study of the Development of the Libido”,[8] where he elaborated on Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia” (1917) and demonstrated the vicissitudes of normal and pathological object relations and reactions to object loss.

Moreover, Abraham investigated child sexual trauma and, like Freud, proposed that sexual abuse was common among psychotic and neurotic patients. Furthermore, he argued (1907) that dementia praecox is associated with child sexual trauma, based on the relationship between hysteria and child sexual trauma demonstrated by Freud.

Abraham (1920) also showed interest in cultural issues. He analyzed various myths suggesting their relation to dreams (1909) and wrote an interpretation of the spiritual activities of the Egyptian monotheistic Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1912).

Death edit

 
Left to right, seated: Sigmund Freud, Sándor Ferenczi, and Hanns Sachs. Standing; Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Max Eitingon, and Ernest Jones. Photo 1922

Abraham died prematurely on December 25, 1925, from complications of a lung infection and may have suffered from lung cancer.[9]

Works and publications edit

  • Normentafel zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Huhnes (with Prof. Keibel). (1900) Normentafeln zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Wirbeltiere, Heft 2. Jena.
  • Beiträge zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Wellensittichs. (inaugural dissertation.) (1901) Anatomische Blätter (Anatomical Institute, Freiburg), Heft LVI/LVII. (Wiesbaden, I. F. Bergmann.)
  • Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Delirium tremens der Morphinisten. (1902) C., Jahrg. XXV, June, S. 369–80.
  • ber Versuche mit 'Veronal' bei Erregungszuständen der Paralytiker. (1904) C., Jahrg.
  • Abraham, K.(1907). On the significance of Sexual Trauma in Childhood for the Symptomatology of Dementia Praecox. In Hilda, C., Abraham, M.D.(Ed) (1955). Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho-Analysis. London : The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
  • Abraham, K.(1909). Dreams and Myths : A study in folk-Psychology. In Hilda, C., Abraham, M.D.(Ed) (1955). Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho-Analysis. London : The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
  • Abraham, K.(1911). Giovanni Segantini : A Psycho-analytical Study. In Hilda, C., Abraham, M.D.(Ed) (1955). Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho-Analysis. London : The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
  • Abraham, K. (1912). Amenhotep IV. Psycho-analytical Contributions Towards the understanding of his Personality and of the Monotheistic Cult of Aton. . In Hilda, C., Abraham, M.D.(Ed) (1955). Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho-Analysis. London : The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
  • Abraham, K. (1920). The Cultural Significance of Psycho-analysis. In Hilda, C., Abraham, M.D.(Ed) (1955). Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho-Analysis. London : The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
  • Abraham, K (1921). Contributions to the theory of the anal character. In Stein, D.J, Stone, M. H. (Ed) (1997). Essential papers on obsessive-compulsive disorders. New York: New York University Press.
  • Abraham, K The influence of oral erotism on character-formation. In Perzow, S. M., Kets de Vries, M.F.R. (Ed) (1991). Handbook of character studies: Psychoanalytic explorations. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.
  • Abraham, K. A short study of the development of the libido. In Frankiel, R.V. (Ed) (1994). Essential papers on object loss, New York: New York University Press.

Notes edit

  1. ^ . London: Freud Museum. Archived from the original on 26 June 2007. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  2. ^ Bush, Lawrence (25 December 2014). "December 25: Freud's Best Pupil". Jewish Currents. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  3. ^ . Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  4. ^ Sigmund Freud - Karl Abraham
  5. ^ a b Abraham, K, The influence of oral erotism on character-formation. In Perzow, S. M., Kets de Vries, M.F.R. (Ed) (1991). Handbook of character studies: Psychoanalytic explorations. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.
  6. ^ the late Pierre Geissmann; Claudine Geissmann (10 November 2005). A History of Child Psychoanalysis. Routledge. pp. 28–. ISBN 978-1-134-83003-9.
  7. ^ May-Tolzmann, 1997.
  8. ^ Abraham, K., A short study of the development of the libido. In Frankiel, R.V. (Ed) (1994). Essential papers on object loss, New York: New York University Press.
  9. ^ Hoffer, Axel. The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Karl Abraham 1907-1925. American Imago. Volume 61, Number 1, Spring 2004

References edit

  • May, Ulrike (2007), "[Remarks on the Introduction to Karl Abraham's collected works (1969-71)]", Luzifer-Amor : Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse, vol. 20, no. 39, pp. 145–52, PMID 17992845
  • Kuhn, P (2000), "A scandal in Salzburg or Freud's surreptitious role in the 1908 Abraham-Jung dispute.", The International Journal of Psycho-analysis (published Aug 2000), vol. 81, no. 4, pp. 705–31, doi:10.1516/0020757001600110, PMID 11028235
  • Sklarew, B (1999), "Freud and film: encounters in the Weltgeist.", Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 1238–47, PMID 10650559
  • Machtlinger, V (1997), "[Karl Abraham and Giovanni Segantini]", Luzifer-Amor : Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse, vol. 10, no. 20, pp. 81–97, PMID 11625348
  • Decke, B (1997), "[Karl Abraham: family, childhood and youth in Bremen]", Luzifer-Amor : Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse, vol. 10, no. 20, pp. 7–60, PMID 11625347
  • Cremerius, J (1997), "[Karl Abraham, Freud's scapegoat and, guide to understanding the truth]", Luzifer-Amor : Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse, vol. 10, no. 20, pp. 64–80, PMID 11625346
  • Good, M I (1995), "Karl Abraham, Sigmund Freud, and the fate of the seduction theory.", Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 1137–67, doi:10.1177/000306519504300409, PMID 8926328, S2CID 26778091
  • May-Tolzmann, U. (1997). The Discovery of the Bad Mother: Abraham’s contribution to the theory of Depression. Luzifer-Amor: Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse, 10(20), 98-131.
  • Shengold, L (1972), "A parapraxis of Freud's in relation to Karl Abraham.", The American Imago; A Psychoanalytic Journal for the Arts and Sciences, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 123–59, PMID 4562662

Further reading edit

  • Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and Melancholia. Standard Edition, 14, 305-307.
  • Selected Papers on Psycho-Analysis, Publisher: Karnac Books; 1997, ISBN 0-9501647-7-1

External links edit

    November 23, 2023
    karl, abraham, german, ˈaːbʁaham, 1877, december, 1925, influential, german, psychoanalyst, collaborator, sigmund, freud, called, best, pupil, born3, 1877bremen, german, empiredied25, december, 1925, 1925, aged, berlin, weimar, republicscientific, careerfields. Karl Abraham German ˈaːbʁaham 3 May 1877 25 December 1925 was an influential German psychoanalyst and a collaborator of Sigmund Freud who called him his best pupil 1 2 Karl AbrahamBorn3 May 1877Bremen German EmpireDied25 December 1925 1925 12 26 aged 48 Berlin Weimar RepublicScientific careerFieldsPsychiatry Contents 1 Life 2 Collaborations 3 Death 4 Works and publications 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksLife editAbraham was born in Bremen Germany His parents were Nathan Abraham a Jewish religion teacher 1842 1915 and his wife and cousin Ida 1847 1929 3 His studies in medicine enabled him to take a position at the Burgholzli Swiss Mental Hospital where Eugen Bleuler practiced The setting of this hospital initially introduced him to the psychoanalysis of Carl Gustav Jung citation needed Collaborations editThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Karl Abraham news newspapers books scholar JSTOR December 2021 template removal help In 1907 he had his first contact with Sigmund Freud with whom he developed a lifetime relationship Returning to Germany he founded the Berliner Society of Psychoanalysis in 1910 4 He was the president of the International Psychoanalytical Association from 1914 to 1918 and again in 1925 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 the years 1924 1925 and of a number of other British psychoanalysts including Edward Glover and Alix Strachey He was a mentor for an influential group of German analysts including Karen Horney Helene Deutsch and Franz Alexander Karl Abraham studied the role of infant sexuality in character development and mental illness and like Freud suggested that if psychosexual development is fixated at some point mental disorders will likely emerge He described the personality traits and psychopathology that result from the oral and anal stages of development 1921 5 Abraham observed his only daughter Hilda reporting on her reaction to enemas and infantile masturbation by her brother He asked that secrets be shared with him but he was careful to respect her privacy and some reports were not published until after Hilda s death Hilda was later to become a psychoanalyst 6 In the oral stage of development the first relationships children have with objects caretakers determine their subsequent relationship to reality Oral satisfaction can result in self assurance and optimism whereas oral fixation can lead to pessimism and depression Moreover a person with an oral fixation will present a disinclination to take care of him herself and will require others to look after him her This may be expressed through extreme passivity corresponding to the oral benign suckling substage or through a highly active oral sadistic behaviour corresponding to the later sadistic biting substage 5 In the anal stage when the training in cleanliness starts too early conflicts may result between a conscious attitude of obedience and an unconscious desire for resistance This can lead to traits such as frugality orderliness and obstinacy as well as to obsessional neurosis as a result of anal fixation Abraham 1921 In addition Abraham based his understanding of manic depressive illness on the study of the painter Segantini an actual event of loss is not itself sufficient to bring the psychological disturbance involved in melancholic depression This disturbance is linked with disappointing incidents of early childhood in the case of men always with the mother Abraham 1911 This concept of the prooedipal bad mother was a new development in contrast to Freud s oedipal mother and paved the way for the theories of Melanie Klein 7 Another important contribution is his work A short study of the Development of the Libido 8 where he elaborated on Freud s Mourning and Melancholia 1917 and demonstrated the vicissitudes of normal and pathological object relations and reactions to object loss Moreover Abraham investigated child sexual trauma and like Freud proposed that sexual abuse was common among psychotic and neurotic patients Furthermore he argued 1907 that dementia praecox is associated with child sexual trauma based on the relationship between hysteria and child sexual trauma demonstrated by Freud Abraham 1920 also showed interest in cultural issues He analyzed various myths suggesting their relation to dreams 1909 and wrote an interpretation of the spiritual activities of the Egyptian monotheistic Pharaoh Amenhotep IV 1912 Death edit nbsp Left to right seated Sigmund Freud Sandor Ferenczi and Hanns Sachs Standing Otto Rank Karl Abraham Max Eitingon and Ernest Jones Photo 1922Abraham died prematurely on December 25 1925 from complications of a lung infection and may have suffered from lung cancer 9 Works and publications editNormentafel zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Huhnes with Prof Keibel 1900 Normentafeln zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Wirbeltiere Heft 2 Jena Beitrage zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Wellensittichs inaugural dissertation 1901 Anatomische Blatter Anatomical Institute Freiburg Heft LVI LVII Wiesbaden I F Bergmann Beitrage zur Kenntnis des Delirium tremens der Morphinisten 1902 C Jahrg XXV June S 369 80 ber Versuche mit Veronal bei Erregungszustanden der Paralytiker 1904 C Jahrg Abraham K 1907 On the significance of Sexual Trauma in Childhood for the Symptomatology of Dementia Praecox In Hilda C Abraham M D Ed 1955 Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho Analysis London The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis Abraham K 1909 Dreams and Myths A study in folk Psychology In Hilda C Abraham M D Ed 1955 Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho Analysis London The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis Abraham K 1911 Giovanni Segantini A Psycho analytical Study In Hilda C Abraham M D Ed 1955 Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho Analysis London The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis Abraham K 1912 Amenhotep IV Psycho analytical Contributions Towards the understanding of his Personality and of the Monotheistic Cult of Aton In Hilda C Abraham M D Ed 1955 Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho Analysis London The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis Abraham K 1920 The Cultural Significance of Psycho analysis In Hilda C Abraham M D Ed 1955 Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho Analysis London The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis Abraham K 1921 Contributions to the theory of the anal character In Stein D J Stone M H Ed 1997 Essential papers on obsessive compulsive disorders New York New York University Press Abraham K The influence of oral erotism on character formation In Perzow S M Kets de Vries M F R Ed 1991 Handbook of character studies Psychoanalytic explorations Madison CT International Universities Press Abraham K A short study of the development of the libido In Frankiel R V Ed 1994 Essential papers on object loss New York New York University Press Notes edit Frequently Asked Questions London Freud Museum Archived from the original on 26 June 2007 Retrieved 7 November 2018 Bush Lawrence 25 December 2014 December 25 Freud s Best Pupil Jewish Currents Retrieved 7 November 2018 DPG Archived from the original on 18 July 2011 Retrieved 25 December 2010 Sigmund Freud Karl Abraham a b Abraham K The influence of oral erotism on character formation In Perzow S M Kets de Vries M F R Ed 1991 Handbook of character studies Psychoanalytic explorations Madison CT International Universities Press the late Pierre Geissmann Claudine Geissmann 10 November 2005 A History of Child Psychoanalysis Routledge pp 28 ISBN 978 1 134 83003 9 May Tolzmann 1997 Abraham K A short study of the development of the libido In Frankiel R V Ed 1994 Essential papers on object loss New York New York University Press Hoffer Axel The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Karl Abraham 1907 1925 American Imago Volume 61 Number 1 Spring 2004References editMay Ulrike 2007 Remarks on the Introduction to Karl Abraham s collected works 1969 71 Luzifer Amor Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse vol 20 no 39 pp 145 52 PMID 17992845 Kuhn P 2000 A scandal in Salzburg or Freud s surreptitious role in the 1908 Abraham Jung dispute The International Journal of Psycho analysis published Aug 2000 vol 81 no 4 pp 705 31 doi 10 1516 0020757001600110 PMID 11028235 Sklarew B 1999 Freud and film encounters in the Weltgeist Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association vol 47 no 4 pp 1238 47 PMID 10650559 Machtlinger V 1997 Karl Abraham and Giovanni Segantini Luzifer Amor Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse vol 10 no 20 pp 81 97 PMID 11625348 Decke B 1997 Karl Abraham family childhood and youth in Bremen Luzifer Amor Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse vol 10 no 20 pp 7 60 PMID 11625347 Cremerius J 1997 Karl Abraham Freud s scapegoat and guide to understanding the truth Luzifer Amor Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse vol 10 no 20 pp 64 80 PMID 11625346 Good M I 1995 Karl Abraham Sigmund Freud and the fate of the seduction theory Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association vol 43 no 4 pp 1137 67 doi 10 1177 000306519504300409 PMID 8926328 S2CID 26778091 May Tolzmann U 1997 The Discovery of the Bad Mother Abraham s contribution to the theory of Depression Luzifer Amor Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse 10 20 98 131 Shengold L 1972 A parapraxis of Freud s in relation to Karl Abraham The American Imago A Psychoanalytic Journal for the Arts and Sciences vol 29 no 2 pp 123 59 PMID 4562662Further reading editFreud S 1917 Mourning and Melancholia Standard Edition 14 305 307 Selected Papers on Psycho Analysis Publisher Karnac Books 1997 ISBN 0 9501647 7 1External links editInternational Psychoanalytical Association Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Karl Abraham amp oldid 1167279748, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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