Marie Jahoda über ihre Psychoanalyse bei Heinz Hartmann

Wien, 1932 bis 1933

From 1932 to 1933, I was for fourteen months in analysis with Heinz Hartmann. The major thing it did for me was that afterwards I found it somewhat easier to talk about my feelings. There were painful moments and one hilarious one. Hartmann was a very orthodox analyst. I lay on a couch, he sat behind me. He reacted to my prolonged silences by occasional questions: why aren’t you talking? What are you thinking? etc. I did not know how to answer and it got on my nerves. So I prepared myself with a suitable topic. I was at the time reading a pornographic book that Hans Zeisel had lent me, Josefine Mutzenbacher,1 which had appeared anonymously but was known to have been written by Felix Salten,2 a well-known author of children’s books. Of course, it was censored and copies were exceedingly rare. So once, after another prolonged silence, I finally got myself to say I am reading Josefine Mutzenbacher. And like a shot, an interested voice behind me burst out: How did you get a copy? We both recognised the contrast to our usual competing silences; we both laughed. It had a liberating effect on the process of analysis.

Marie Jahoda Albu: Reconstructions. [Keymer, Sussex: Published by the author] 1996, S. 45.

1 Vgl. [anonym]: Josefine Mutzenbacher. Die Lebensgeschichte einer wienerischen Dirne, von ihr selbst erzählt. [Wien: ohne Verlagsangabe 1906]. Der anonym erschienene Roman gilt als beispielhaftes Werk pornografischer Literatur. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.
2 Felix Salten (d.i. Siegmund Salzmann; Budapest 1869 – Zürich 1947): Schriftsteller, unter anderem Verfasser des bekannten Kinderbuches: Bambi. Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde. Berlin 1923. Seine hier und auch sonst wiederholt behauptete Verfasserschaft der »Josefine Mutzenbacher« ist literaturwissenschaftlich nicht eindeutig erwiesen. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.

© Reinhard Müller -- Graz, im Oktober 2006

EHE MIT P. F. LAZARSFELD
Carl Jahoda und P. F. Lazarsfeld
Ehekonflikte
Paris
Geburt der Tochter
Karl-Marx-Hof
Lazarsfeld als Vater
Schuld am Scheitern der Ehe
Psychoanalyse
Trennung
Unterstützung

Ella Lingens
Sofie Lazarsfeld