Sándor Ferenczi, Géza Róheim and the University of Budapest, 1918–19

Abstract

The article deals with the prehistory and the circumstances of Sándor Ferenczi's university career, and also discusses the university affairs of another prominent Hungarian psychoanalyst, Géza Róheim. Ferenczi's application for lectureship at the Medical Faculty was refused by the conservative professors in 1913. However, after the revolution in 1918 the university students themselves demanded Ferenczi's invitation to teach at the university. The Faculty resisted again, but finally, in April 1919 Ferenczi was appointed as professor Chair of Psychoanalytic Studies and Psychoanalytic Clinic of the Medical Faculty of the Budapest University. His appointment was confirmed by the Communist government, which came to power in March 1919. Róheim's application for lectureship was also refused, by the Philosophical Faculty, in 1917. In contrast to various legends, Róheim was not rewarded with a university chair in 1919, although he gave lectures on anthropology for different audiences and supported the cultural politics of the Councils' Republic.