Margarete Mitscherlich-Nielsen

Margarete Mitscherlich-Nielsen
Born (1917-07-17)July 17, 1917
Gråsten, Denmark
Died June 12, 2012(2012-06-12) (aged 94)
Frankfurt, Germany
Fields Psychology
Alma mater University of Tübingen
Notable awards 2001 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Spouse Alexander Mitscherlich

Margarete Mitscherlich-Nielsen (née Nielsen;[1] 17 July 1917 – 12 June 2012) was a German psychoanalyst. In Germany she was often referred to as the "Grande Dame of German psychoanalysis".[2][3] Much of her work centers around themes of feminism, female sexuality, and the national psychology of post-war Germany.

Life

Margarete Nielsen was born into a Protestant family in Gråsten.[4] She was the youngest daughter of Danish country doctor Nis Peter Nielsen and his wife Margarete (née Leopold), who was a German school headmaster. She grew up in Denmark and Germany, passing the abitur in 1937 at a private school in Flensburg. After studying literature she turned to become a doctor as her father, studying medicine at the universities of Munich and Heidelberg. She passed the first state exam in 1944 and received a doctorate from the University of Tübingen in 1950.

Her professional work as a psychoanalyst began at an anthroposophical clinic in the Swiss canton of Ticino. She met her future husband Alexander Mitscherlich there who introduced her to the works of Sigmund Freud. They married in 1955.[5] In the 1950s, she completed her psychoanalytic training at the London institute led by Anna Freud, Melanie Klein and Michael Balint. Along with Alexander Mitscherlich, she returned to Germany, taking up work at a psychosomatic clinic her husband directed at Heidelberg, before moving to Frankfurt. In 1960, the couple became co-founders of the Sigmund-Freud-Institut dedicated to psychoanalytic research.

Contributions to Psychology

From the 1960s, alongside the protagonists of the Frankfurt School, the Mitscherlichs played an important part in post-war Germany's intellectual debates, employing psychoanalytic thought for explaining the causes behind Nazi Germany and its aftermath in German society to the present day. The first major book they wrote together was Die Unfähigkeit zu trauern. Grundlagen kollektiven Verhaltens (The Inability to Mourn: Principles of Collective Behaviour), first published in 1967, discussing why the Holocaust, the war crimes, and the sentiment of guilt on the offender's part were not dealt with adequately in post-war German society.[6]

Subsequently, Margarete Mitscherlich's interest in feminist positions grew, as she became friends with German feminist journalist Alice Schwarzer, contributing to her magazine EMMA. In the first issue of the journal in November 1977, she confessed: "Ich bin Feministin" ("I am a feminist"). At the time, she also took an active part in legal actions against anti-women depictions in popular German media. Her book Die friedfertige Frau. Eine psychoanalytische Untersuchung zur Aggression der Geschlechter (The peaceable sex: On aggression in women and men), first published in 1985, is Mitscherlich's most successful book to date, dealing with the roles women play in politics. In the follow-up Die Zukunft ist weiblich (The future is feminine, 1987) Mitscherlich pleaded for values to become more feminine, even men's values.[7] She is notable for the highly politicized nature of her work when many of her peers considered neutrality an essential element of psychoanalysis.

Until well into her nineties, Mitscherlich worked as a psychoanalyst, advising younger colleagues and commenting political developments in the press. In her latest book, published in 2010, aged 93, Die Radikalität des Alters. Einsichten einer Psychoanalytikerin (The Radicality of Age. Insights of a Psychoanalyst) she reflects upon her own experience of aging.[8]

Mitscherlich was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2001. She received the Ehrenplakette der Stadt Frankfurt am Main in 1990 and the Tony-Sender-Preis der Stadt Frankfurt am Main in 2005.

Mitscherlich has a son who was born in 1949, a lawyer and executive manager. She lived in the Frankfurt Westend until her death. She died, aged 94, in Frankfurt.

Writings

Literature

External links

References

  1. ↑ In Germany, she is commonly known as "Margarete Mitscherlich".
  2. ↑ If not noted otherwise, all biographical information is taken from: "Margarete Mitscherlich". Internationales Biographisches Archiv. 28/2011. Munzinger Online/Personen. 12 July 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
  3. ↑ "Germany mourns outspoken therapist Mitscherlich". DW.DE. 13 June 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  4. ↑ Mingels, Guido. "Margarete Mitscherlich, Teil 1 Interview". Das Magazin. 39/2007. Archived from the original on 4 October 2007. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
  5. ↑ "Alexander Mitscherlich: Biographische Angaben". Frankfurt University Library. Frankfurt University. 9 September 2008. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
  6. ↑ "What did the `68ers read before they became authors themselves? / A critical bibliography of selected writings for a "refresher course"". Goethe-Institut. 2008. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  7. ↑ Mingels, Guido. "Margarete Mitscherlich, Teil 2 Interview". Das Magazin. 39/2007. Archived from the original on 5 March 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
  8. ↑ "Famed German therapist Margarete Mitscherlich dies". DW. 12 June 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, December 08, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.