Siegfried Bernfeld And Social Education
Siegfried Bernfeld is one of the first psychoanalysts who, over time, adopted a radical left position. Bernfeld was a great protagonist of his time, but over the years he was unfairly relegated to the background. However, his work is interesting, and his contributions still have a relevant resonance today.
Anna Freud pointed out that Siegfried Bernfeld was one of those “extraordinary beings” who was part of the first wave of psychoanalysis. In fact, Sigmund Freud himself praises Bernfeld in one of his letters: “he is a leading expert in psychoanalysis. I consider him perhaps the most talented of my students and disciples. In addition, his knowledge is superior, he is an irresistible speaker and an extremely influential teacher. In the end, I can only say the best about him ”.
Like his contemporaries, Siegfried Bernfeld lived in times of great social and political upheaval. This is why at a given moment, and before the persecution of which he was the object since he was Jewish, he focused his reflections on the social field. He therefore left aside the strictly psychoanalytic facet to devote himself more to collective phenomena, from a political point of view.
Siegfried Bernfeld, like many other psychoanalysts, was Jewish. He was born in Lemberg (Galicia) in 1892. His parents were wealthy textile traders. Bernfeld, passionate about nature, studied zoology and botany. This allowed him to forge solid scientific knowledge.
Very young, he was also interested in pedagogy and psychology. He was captivated by the reach of hypnotism, which in his day was a great innovation. He even tried it with his little brother. Siegfried Bernfeld also showed some interest in Maria Montessori’s theories. Then, he studied psychoanalysis in depth and developed a fascination with the method of free association.
At 22, he married Anne Salomon, a young medical student and fervent supporter of Marxist ideas who strongly influenced his thinking as well as his activities. Barely three years after his marriage, he was already organizing a gigantic meeting of the Zionist youth, on the occasion of which Martin Buber gave a speech which became very famous.
Motivated by his political activity, Siegfried Bernfeld founded an institution dedicated to the care of orphaned Jewish children of the First World War. Its objective was to train these young people in such a way that they could migrate to Palestine. He therefore had 145 charges, many of whom suffered severe trauma. This prompted him to focus all the more on psychoanalysis.
Quickly he got to know Sigmund Freud and began to be part of the psychoanalytic circle. Finally, he opened a practice in Vienna in 1922, and it was in this context that he forged a close friendship with Anna Freud, who considered it to be one of the great promises of the new psychoanalytic current. With Anna and other psychoanalysts of the time, he formed a group dedicated to helping abandoned children.
This group is mainly interested in extending psychoanalytic questions to the social field. In 1925, Siegfried Bernfeld published his first two works, devoted to social education. One focused on adolescence, and the other on German teaching methods, which he saw as a real culture for a dictatorial regime.
Siegfried Bernfeld married three times and lived in various European countries, then Nazism took power. Eventually, he took a break in San Francisco with his third wife. Unlike other psychoanalysts, Bernfeld never agreed with the “ego psychologist” who was then put forward in North America.
Perhaps the nostalgia for his origins coupled with his great intellectual curiosity led him to become one of Freud’s most important biographers. Although not considered his “official” biographer, his articles were clearly picked up by Ernest Jones, whom Anna Freud considered to be her father’s biographer of record.
Siegfried Bernfeld has left behind interesting essays in which he mixes the principles of psychoanalysis and social education. His work on the psychology of adolescence is also notable. On the other hand, he founded the first psychoanalytic society in San Francisco. He is remembered by many as a compulsive tobacco user, lover of beautiful women and an honest psychoanalyst.
Our thoughts After the introduction of psychoanalysis carried out by Freud, many other psychoanalysts allowed the evolution of this method of investing …
