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Marie Jahoda über ihre Schwiegermutter Sofie Lazarsfeld, geborene Munk She [i.e. Sofie Lazarsfeld, née Munk] was by all standards an extraordinary woman, but not a good one. Beautiful, intelligent, domineering, admired hostess of a salon for socialist intellectuals, a professional Adlerian individual psychologist,1 wrote books on her clinical practice with – then – daring titles (How Woman experiences Man2); and egocentric and cold as a fish in relationships with all but two: Paul [Lazarsfeld] and Fritz Adler;. Her husband3 she treated with tolerant neglect. In any case, he preferred to retreat into his part of the huge flat where he had his lawyer’s office and his piano, which he played with more musical than technical competence. Her adoration of Paul went to extremes – not a good omen for her relationship with her three consecutive daughters-in-law,4 of which I was the first. When in old age, she wrote an autobiographical sketch, she dwelt on Paul; but did not even mention the birth of her daughter. She was 93 when Paul died. After his death, she simply gave up, refused to eat and died a few weeks later.I used to visit her on my regular visits to the States. Ex-daughters-in-law she tolerated. When she was 90 she urged me to bring Austen [Albu] along. We stayed for about an hour, which she spent flirting with him, completely ignoring me. Her preference for the company of men was uninhibited. Lotte [Lazarsfeld, married Bailyn] suffered from it when Sofie came to New York in 1940 after her escape to France in 1938 from Vienna. Sofie lived to begin with Paul and was supposed to look after Lotte and teach her some French. No wonder Lotte did not develop a love for French. Apparently, Sofie spent hours comparing her unfavourably with the achievements of her two French grandsons. It must have been torture for Lotte. I believe she also tried to teach her bridge, the third passion in Sofie’s life. And that this was torture I remember from when it happened to me when Paul and I were first married. In Vienna, some of Sofie’s women patients lived in devoted bondage to her, performing secretarial and practical household services for which she had neither taste nor time. One of them was present at that visit two days after my release. I felt pretty desperate about the renewed separation from Lotte, searched for possible alternatives like Lotte staying with my mother [i.e. Betty Jahoda, née Propst] until I was settled which at least was not as far away as the States. Sofie cut me short, saying: A woman who puts politics before her child has no right to interfere with the wishes of the father. Somehow, this was the last straw, perhaps because I felt that in her brutal words she had hit on my weakest point. I broke into uncontrollable tears and ran out of the house. She sent her slave after me to call me back. But I preferred the stares of strangers in the street to her hated presence. Marie Jahoda Albu: Reconstructions. [Keymer, Sussex: Published by the author] 1996, S. 61–62.
1 Alfred
Adler<http://agso.uni-graz.at/archive/marienthal/bibliothek/biografien/07_04_Adler_Alfred_Biografie.htm>
(1870–1937), Begründer der Individualpsychologie, die den
Hauptantrieb menschlichen Handelns im Macht- und Geltungsstreben
sieht, hatte gerade in der Sozialdemokratie eine große
Anhängerschaft. Anmerkung
Reinhard Müller.
2 Vgl.
Sofie Lazarsfeld: Wie
die Frau den Mann erlebt. Fremde Bekenntnisse und eigene
Betrachtungen. (Der kulturhistorische Teil des Buches verdankt
Material und Gesichtspunkte Herrn Doktor Robert Lazarsfeld.)
Leipzig–Wien: Verlag für Sexualwissenschaft Schneider &
Co. [1931]; das Buch wurde in mehrere Sprachen übersetzt.
Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.
3 D.i.
Robert Lazarsfeld (Wien 1871 – Paris 1940): Rechtsanwalt;
emigrierte 1938 nach Frankreich.
Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.
4 Das
sind Marie Jahoda, Herta
Herzog<00_02_Massing_Herzog_Herta>
(1910–) und Patricia Kendall (Pueblo, Colorado, am 12. Juni
1921 – New York, N.Y., am 15. März
1990). Alle drei Frauen von Paul F. Lazarsfeld waren als
Sozialwissenschaftlerinnen tätig. 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 |