Siegfried Bernfeld And Social Education

Siegfried Bernfeld is another of the first generation psychoanalysts who over time adopted a radical left position. Bernfeld had a major role at the time, but over time he has been unfairly relegated. His work is interesting and his contributions are highly relevant to today’s world.

Anna Freud pointed out that Siegfried Bernfeld had been one of those ” extraordinary beings ” who made up the first layer of psychoanalysis. In fact, Sigmund Freud himself referred to him in one of his letters saying: “He is a leading expert on psychoanalysis. I consider him perhaps the most gifted of my students and disciples. He also possesses superior knowledge, is an irresistible speaker, and an extremely influential teacher. So on the whole I can only say the best about him . “

Like his contemporaries, Siegfried Bernfeld had to live through a time that was very convulsed socially and politically. For this reason, at a given moment, and faced with the persecution he was subjected to for being a Jew, he focused his reflections on the social field. He put aside the strictly psychoanalytic facet, to get more involved with collective phenomena, from a political point of view.

The beginnings of Siegfried Bernfeld

Siegfried Bernfeld, like many other psychoanalysts, was of Jewish origin. He was born in Lemberg (Galicia), in the year 1892. His parents were dedicated to the textile trade and had a comfortable position. Bernfeld studied zoology and botany, as he was passionate about nature . This gave him a very solid scientific background.

At a very young age, he also became interested in pedagogy and psychology. He was delighted with the scope of hypnotism, which was quite an innovation in its time. In fact, he came to practice it with his younger brother. He was also very interested in the theories of María Montessori. Later he studied psychoanalysis in depth and became fascinated with the method of free association.

At 22 he married Anne Salomon, a young medical student and a fervent follower of Marxist ideas. She was a definite influence on his thinking and his activities. Just three years after his marriage, he was already organizing a gigantic gathering of the Zionist youth. In it, Martin Buber made a speech that became very famous.

Social activity and psychoanalysis

Motivated by his political activity, Siegfried Bernfeld created an institution dedicated to collecting Jewish children who were orphans of the First World War. His goal was to train them so that they could emigrate to Palestine. He had 145 proteges, many of whom had serious trauma. This inclined him even more towards psychoanalysis.

He soon met Sigmund Freud personally and became part of the psychoanalytic circle. He finally opened a practice in Vienna in 1922. By then he had become close friends with Anna Freud and he was considered one of the great promises of the new psychoanalytic trend. With Anna and other psychoanalysts of the time, he formed a group dedicated to assisting helpless children.

This group’s main interest was to extend psychoanalytic questions to the social field. In 1925, Siegfried Bernfeld published his first two works, devoted to social education. One was focused on adolescence and the other on German pedagogical methods, which he considered a real crop for a dictatorial regime.

Bernfeld’s end

Siegfried Bernfeld was married three times and lived in various countries in Europe when Nazism came to power. Finally he went to San Francisco (USA), with his third wife . Unlike other psychoanalysts, Bernfeld was never satisfied with the “ego psychology” that was being advanced in America.

Perhaps the nostalgia for his origins, added to his great intellectual curiosity, led him to become one of the most important biographers of Freud. Although he is not considered the “official”, his articles on the matter were clearly taken up by Ernest Jones, whom Anna Freud considered her father’s authorized biographer.

Siegfried Bernfeld left interesting essays in which he mixes the principles of psychoanalysis and social education. His works on the psychology of adolescence are notable. He founded the first psychoanalytic society of San Francisco. Many remember him as a compulsive tobacco user, lover of beautiful women, and honest psychoanalyst.