Else Frenkel-Brunswik

Else Frenkel - Brunswik ( born August 18, 1908 in Lviv, † March 31, 1958 in Berkeley, California ) was a psychoanalyst and psychologist.

Life

She was born as the second of three daughters of the Jewish department store owner and his wife Helene Abraham Frenkel Frenkel. Because of a pogrom fled the family to Vienna in 1914. After graduating in 1926, she studied mathematics and physics, then psychology at the University of Vienna and trained as a psychoanalyst. After the PhD. 1930 ( " The Associationsprinzip in psychology " ) she was from 1931 to 1938 Associate of Karl and Charlotte Bühler at the Psychological Institute of the University of Vienna (Department of biographical studies) and lecturers. Because of the connection of Austria to Germany in 1938 Else Frenkel had to flee again; they emigrated to the United States. In the same year she married the psychologist Egon Brunswik.

Else Frenkel - Brunswik received American citizenship in 1938. From 1939 to 1958 she was a Research Associate at the Institute of Child Welfare, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, from 1944 to Lecturer, also from 1944 to 1947 Senior Staff Member of the R. Nevitt Sanford social psychologist and the psychiatrist and psychologist Daniel J. Levinson led Berkeley Public Opinion Study ( University of California ) with the main theme of anti-Semitism. In the emigrated together with the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research begun studies on prejudice ( Studies in Prejudice ) was Sanford in 1944 with Theodor W. Adorno research director. Else Frenkel - Brunswik was heavily involved, particularly in the design and analysis of the interviews. Overall, they had a significant amount of research on the authoritarian personality, which is considered one of the great pioneering studies of modern social research.

From 1947 to Frenkel - Brunswik held various positions including Research Psychologist and Psychotherapist at Cowell Memorial Hospital of the University of California, Associate Research Psychologist at the Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California (see keyword: Industrial relations ). Participation in numerous research projects, including also at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo. After the death of her husband Egon Brunswik (1955 ) to health problems that led to the suicide in 1958 reinforced.

In 2012 ( 22nd District ), the Frenkel - Brunswik alley named after her in Vienna Danube city.

Work

In their social psychological studies Frenkel - Brunswik has highlighted a typical feature: the intolerance of ambiguity ( ambiguity ). Thus, the non- endurance - ability of ambiguity is meant. Some people can not tolerate ambiguous and contradictory facts and they are unable to empathize with the views of other people in terms of a change in perspective. There is then in front of a rigid, inflexible, compulsive attitude; Nuances and complex issues irritate and will be rejected. This defensive tendency is closely related to the negative attitude towards " extraneous ", with authoritarianism and ethnocentrism, ie the rejection of foreigners and foreign cultures.

Writings (selection )

  • Else Frenkel, Edith Weisskopf: desire and duty in the structure of human life. Gerold & Co., Vienna 1937 ( Psychological research on the resume. Edited by Charlotte Buhler and Else Frenkel. Volume 1).
  • Else Frenkel - Brunswik: motivation and behavior. Genetic Psychology Monographs. Vol 26, 1942, pp. 121-265.
  • Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel - Brunswik, Daniel J. Levinson, R. Nevitt Sanford: The Authoritarian Personality. New Harper and Brothers, New York 1950.
  • Else Frenkel - Brunswik: Selected papers. Edited by Nanette Heiman and Joan Grant. International Universities Press, New York 1974.
  • Else Frenkel - Brunswik: studies on the authoritarian personality. Selected Writings (edited and introduced by Dietmar Paier ). Library of social science emigrants. Vol 3 Nausner and Nausner, Vienna 1996. ISBN 3-901402-04-7
  • Else Frenkel - Brunswik, R. Nevitt Sanford: The anti-Semitic personality. A research report. In: Erich Simmel (ed.): anti-Semitism. Fischer, Frankfurt q.s. 1993, S, 119-147. ( An earlier version of the Journal of Psychology, Vol 20, 1945, pp. 271-291 ). ISBN 3-596-10965-5
  • Nathan W. Ackerman, Theodor W. Adorno, Bruno Bettelheim, Else Frenkel - Brunswik, Marie Jahoda, Morris Janowitz, Daniel J. Levinson, R. Nevitt Sanford: The Authoritarian Personality. Volume 2: Studies on Authority and Prejudice. Amsterdam: De Munter, Amsterdam 1969 ISBN 3-88535-341-5.
  • Dietmar Paier: Else Frenkel - Brunswik 1908-1958. Archive for the History of Sociology in Austria. Newsletter (Graz), No. 13, June 1996, pp. 9-11. (see)
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