Theories and practices of psychoanalysis in central Europe immediately after World War II

Abstract

ABSTRACT Shortly after World War II, psychoanalytic societies in Central Europe were gradually resuming their pre-war activities. Starting in 1945, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland saw the revival of their psychoanalytic circles which subsequently engaged in psychoanalytic knowledge transmission, especially in the face of the Communist state institutions’ growing disapproval of psychoanalysis. This article traces the history of the psychoanalytic movement’s rebirth in Central Europe. The author discusses the activities of Viennese, Budapestian, Praguian and Varsovian circles post-1945 in order to examine the practices of collective thinking and identify diverse models of the transmission of Freudianism. The attempt to explore the complex mechanisms of psychoanalytic knowledge dissemination in the immediate post-war period, both in its theoretical and practical dimensions, can contribute to a more profound understanding of the history of psychoanalysis in Central Europe after 1945. It also points to the significance of a more inquisitive approach to the internal dynamics of these intellectual circles which were forced to develop outside of state academic institutions due to socio-political reasons.