Fenichel | Otto

Otto Fenichel was born in Vienna in 1897. He chose to study medicine with the aim of eventually working in psychoanalysis. In his teens he had already read some of Freud’s work and began presenting his ideas on sexuality and sexual ethics to fellow students. In 1918 he was invited as guest speaker to the Viennese Psychoanalytic Society, where he gave a paper 'On a Derivative of the Incest Conflict'. He moved to Berlin in 1922 to complete his training at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. He also furthered his psychiatric and neurological knowledge by working with Bonhoffer and Cassierer. Two years later he joined the Institute’s teaching staff and began to publish numerous psychoanalytical papers. He left Germany in 1933 when the National Socialist Party came to power. He was invited by Norwegian psychoanalysts to work in Oslo, where he remained teaching for two years. In 1936 he moved to Prague and took over the chairmanship of the Prague Study Group. Finally with Czechoslovakia threatened by invasion he fled to Los Angeles where he was welcomed by the Psychoanalytic Study Group. He died suddenly in 1946, survived by his wife Hanna Fenichel (née Heilborn).

Psychoanalyst

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Revised 2024-04-03

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Revised by Ewan O'Neill