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The Norwegian analysts, who were trained in Berlin before 1933, were drawn into
a struggle against fascism, informed by politically leftist analysts who worked at
the Berlin Institute. The Norwegian group, including the analysts Wilhelm Reich
and Otto Fenichel, were committed to Marxist or social democratic ideologies in
order to fight down fascism and Nazism. They were a source of inspiration but
also of conflict. After the war the leadership of the IPA was sceptical about the
Norwegian group because of its former connections with Die Linke, as well as its
relations with Wilhelm Reich. This paper in part considers the courageous efforts
of Nic Waal, whom Ernest Jones used as a delegate and courier to solve problems
for the IPA and who was unjustly treated after the war.
Introduction
This paper is in part a response to Riccardo Steiners excellent and scholarly
paper published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis on 27 June
2011 (Steiner, 2011), which has spurred us to pursue a particular line of
inquiry. Steiners paper was entitled: In all questions, my interest is not in
the individual people but in the analytic movement as a whole. It will be
hard enough here in Europe in the times to come to keep it going. After all,
we are just a handful of people who really have that in mind .... This
unusually protracted title is a quote from a letter written by Anna Freud to
A. A. Brill on 28 February 1934, in which she discusses how psychoanalysis
is able to continue to operate in countries ruled by fascist and Nazi regimes
(Freud, 1934). In his paper, Steiner states: And a few years later most of
northern Europe, particularly the Netherlands and Denmark, also became
dangerous territory for psychoanalysts because of Nazi occupation (Steiner,
2011, p. 567). This paper intends to elaborate upon Steiners statement,
examining, firstly, the formation and history of the Norwegian Psychoana-
lytic Society and, secondly, the position of Norwegian analysts under Nazi
occupation.
19331940
The Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society was first recognized as a new society
of the IPA during the Lucerne Congress in 1934 when it was called the
Hoels confidential missions to Berlin, Vienna, Prague and Paris were the
first concrete attempts to get Jacobson out of prison (Fenichel, 1935, in
Reichmayr and Mhlleitner, 1998; Brecht, 1988; May and Mhlleitner, 2005,
p. 160). In addition, a Norwegian group was established to try and secure
her release. On 5 June 1936, Anne Buchholtz, a refugee from Hamburg who
was attached to the Norwegian group, wrote to Ernest Jones asking him to
organize an international campaign at the IPAs London office (Brecht et
al., 1985). Citing the Norwegian poet rnulf verlands anti-fascist poem,
Dare not to sleep, this highly evocative letter was sent to a number of emi-
nent people: Jones, Brill, Bose (Calcutta), Eitington, de Monchy, Ger, Sch-
jelderup, Kramer (Riga), Bonaparte, Kannabich (Moscow), Tamm
(Sweden), Sarasin (Switzerland), Marui (Japan), Bychowsky (Warzaw),
Reich, Fenichel, Anna and Sigmund Freud (Fenichel, 1936, in Reichmayr
and Mhlleitner, 1998, p. 4312).
In 1937 Jacobson became increasingly ill. Diagnosed with gastritis and
probable hepatitis, she was transferred to a prison hospital in Breslau. In the
ensuing months her state worsened and she was diagnosed with severe reac-
tive thyroid disturbance and diabetes: her condition was assessed as life-
threatening. According to Jacobson, at that time Nazi policy was to avoid
improper deaths in prison. On the recommendation of her doctor, Jacobson
was temporary released for treatment at a general hospital in Leipzig (Schr-
ter, Mhlleitner and May, 2004). And so Jacobsons friends and politically
committed left-wing analysts began to plot her escape. In the Rundbrief on 14
March 1938, Fenichel wrote: Edith is getting better, but she is still not very
good. The recovery period in hospital will continue for a long time. During
this time a series of necessary steps will be taken (authors translation).
In March 1938, Otto Fenichel sent his Norwegian analysand, Magli
Elster, to Leipzig to arrange Jacobsons escape. On 3 April, Ola Raknes
(Magli Elsters father) travelled to Leipzig with a pledge to marry Jacobson
and thereby obtain an emigration permit for her. But the authorities denied
him the permit (May and Mhlleitner, 2005). Weeks later, around 8 May,
Jacobson was sent to Berlin for further medical treatment. Following the
treatment, instead of returning to Leipzig she took the train to Munich,
leaving a suicide note in Berlin to keep the Gestapo off her trail. Once in
Munich she was given a false passport; in highly risky circumstances, she
took a train to the German Czechoslovakian border and, helped by an old
friend, Fritz Olbrich, she managed to escape to Czechoslovakia. Nic (Hoel)
Waal was also involved when Jacobsons flight was planned and prepared.
Probably, in spring 1938 on her way to Paris, she sent an undated private
letter to her new husband Wessel Waal, attempting to explain why her
letters to him were so scanty and neutral:
Dear Wessel, My travel was due to the following: One of the best younger analysts
was arrested for having treated a communist. The communist was first imprisoned
and took her life in prison. Thereafter the analyst was put in jail and the authori-
ties tried to press her for information. But she did not yield. However, as time went
by confusion began to develop between Berlin, London and Prague about which
methods we should apply to help her as all post was censured, one person had to
travel to clear up the problems. I was the best suited and left at half-a-days notice.
Conclusion
Norwegian analysts were drawn into a struggle against fascism. Most of
them were trained in Berlin before 1933 and were influenced by the politically
involved leftist analysts who worked and taught at the Berlin Institute. Com-
mitted to Marxist or social democratic ideologies in order to fight fascism,
Reich, Fenichel and other immigrant analysts were a strong source of inspi-
ration. However, there were divergences and conflicts. After the war, the lead-
ership of the IPA was sceptical about the Norwegian group because of its
former connections with Die Linke as well as its close relations to Wilhelm
Reich; it became increasingly apparent that the Norwegian Society had been
excluded from the IPA during the war. The official line was that the Norwe-
gian Society had been denied membership of the IPA because of failure to
pay fees between 1940 and1945. There are no formal documents to prove this
so we will never know exactly what happened. As a result of the conflict with
the IPA, Raknes, Havrevold and other members and candidates withdrew
from the Psychoanalytic Society, along with Nic Hoel (Waal), who dedicated
herself to founding a new and comprehensive child psychiatric service called
the Nic Waals Institute. In 1953, the Norwegian Society tried to re-join the
IPA at the 18th International Psychoanalytic Congress in London, but the
application was refused. At the Business Meeting, the president of the IPA,
Heinz Hartmann, said: A group of psychoanalysts in Norway has asked to
be accepted as a Component Society. Among them are a few who do not
practise analysis, but something else a new technique (Hartmann, 1954, p.
278). The composition of the group made it impossible for the Central Exec-
utive to recommend it: Braaty strongly opposed Hartmanns assertion and
presented a short review of the history of the Norwegian Society. He empha-
sized the difficulty of breaking off cooperation with certain members for
scientific reasons in peacetime after having cooperated with them in times of
extreme external danger during the war (Braaty, 1954a, p. 278). He asked
for a clear explanation for the unreasonable exclusion of the Norwegian
group. Hartmanns response was evasive: The decision is merely postponed
until the Norwegian group reaches proper standards for membership (1954,
p. 278). The Norwegian analysts were frustrated for many years. Several
gifted candidates discontinued their training and established a new Institute
of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, which is today a nation-wide organization
with over 400 members and nearly 100 candidates who all are well trained
clinical psychologists and psychiatrists.
Although Norwegian analysts were influenced by Reich and Fenichel, they
sought to formulate their own independent contributions to psychoanalytic
technique. Braaty (1954b) was of the opinion that the formal psychoana-
lytic technique focused too much on the patients words or lack of words.
Analysts had primarily become listeners, not observers. Braaty was analy-
sed by Fenichel, who sat in a low chair behind the coach, where he could
not see Braatys face. When asked about this, Fenichel said he was trained
so well to listen to patients that he could gauge their emotional tensions
through their words and the way they were spoken. Braaty thought that
the excessive focus on auditory impressions deprived the analyst of signifi-
cant observations of facial expressions, respiration and movements. If we
neglected the basic tool of clinical science our visual observations our
analytic practice could acquire an intellectual bias. Various forms of nonverbal
behaviour could be regarded as equivalents to free association. Psychoanaly-
sis had always been a form of vegetotherapy in Freuds sense that the
treatment will not have effect unless the affects of the psychic conflict are
mobilized (i.e. the vegetative nervous system). Besides, it might be useful to
sit at the head of the couch in such a way that one could better observe the
patients different nonverbal behaviour and investigate how these body-
based phenomena suggest significant early experiences. Specific preverbal
experiences, nonverbal expressions, or what we today call implicit and proce-
dural manifestations, could be stored and take root in a given way of behav-
ing, relating or speaking. Such specific formal behaviour expressions could
be explored by bringing the patients attention to them, enabling the patient
to associate with their actual somatic sensations and body attitudes, thus
experiencing them more concretely and tangibly. Norwegian analysts stress
the importance of observing how verbal and nonverbal communications are
expressed, assuming that the formal characteristics suggest their origin. Con-
sequently, analysis of the specific formal qualities of the verbal and nonver-
bal material will often lead to the unconscious content of a given conflict.
One may say that the integration of character analytic technique and the
classical analytical approach represents a particular trait of Norwegian psy-
choanalysis (Anthi, 1995, 2007).
Finally, at the IPA Congress in London in 1975, 30 years after the war,
the Norwegian group regained status as a component society of the IPA,
and Fiffi Piene was formally accepted as president of the Norwegian Society.
Translations of summary
Une note sur lhistoire de la Societe norvegienne de psychanalyse de 1933 a` 1945. Les analys-
tes norvgiens forms Berlin avant 1933 ont pris part la lutte contre le fascisme sous linfluence des
analystes de gauche qui travaillaient lInstitut de Berlin. Les analystes du groupe norvgien, y compris
Wilhelm Reich et Otto Fenichel, ont adhr aux idologies marxiste ou social-dmocrate afin de combattre
le fascisme et le nazisme. Ils furent une source dinspiration mais aussi de conflit. Apr s la guerre, la
direction de lAPI fit preuve de scepticisme envers le groupe norvgien en raison de ses prcdents liens
avec Die Linke et ses relations avec Wilhem Reich. Lauteur de cet article voque les efforts courageux de
Nic Waal dont Ernest Jones utilisa les services comme dlgu et messager pour rsoudre les probl mes
au sein de lAPI et qui fut injustement trait apr s la guerre.
Appunti sulla storia della societa` psicoanalitica norvegese dal 1933 al 1945. Gli analisti norve-
gesi formatisi a Berlino negli anni precedenti il 1933, furono coinvolti in una lotta contro il fascismo, in-
fluenzati dagli analisti di sinistra politicamente impegnati che lavoravano nellInstituto di Berlino. Il
gruppo norvegese, che comprendeva Wilhelm Reich e Otto Fenichel, promulgavano lideologia marxista e
socialista nella lotta contro il fascismo e il nazismo, costituendo una fonte di ispirazione ma anche di
conflitto. In seguito alla guerra, le autorit dell IPA diffidarono dal gruppo norvegese a causa delle sue
passate intese con Die Linke, e relazioni con Wilhelm Reich. Parte di questo lavoro considera le coraggi-
ose imprese di Nic Waal, di cui Ernest Jones si era servito come delegato e messaggero per risolvere
problemi per conto dellIPA e che fu trattato ingiustamente dopo la guerra.
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