Géza Róheim—1891-1953

Géza Róheim died on the seventh of June, 1953. Two months previously his wife had died. Their disappearance in such a short span of time has left their many friends stunned and incredulous. While Mrs. Róheim—gay, warm and hospitable—had devoted herself to the comfort and protection of her scientist-husband, Dr. Róheim had become one of the earliest and most brilliant of the exponents of our science. His death is an irreparable loss.

Róheim's work in the field of psychoanalytic anthropology has been unsurpassed in its originality and its range. The volume, Psychoanalysis and Culture, presented to him by pupils and colleagues two years ago, listed 163 publications. Among his major works one needs hardly to be reminded of Australian Totemism, Animism, Magic and the Divine King, The Riddle of the Sphinx, The Eternal Ones of the Dream. The last product of his labor, The Gates of the Dream, in which he abandoned the theory of the death instinct, reached him when he was unconscious and dying.

He was familiar with all the mythologies—European, Australian, American Indian—and, with a sovereign mastery of the psychoanalytic instrument, he was able to cut through differences of custom to demonstrate the identity of the whole human race. His scientific work bears witness to his fervent spirit, his capacity for the assimilation of new data, and his consequent never-ending growth. Thus, until the end, his work in anthropology mirrored the contemporaneous development of psychoanalysis. This work will stand and the future will see its significance increase.

Géza Róheim, an only son, was born in Budapest on September 12, 1891. He studied anthropology at the University of Berlin and Leipzig and afterwards he worked on the staff of the Hungarian National Museum. He became acquainted with Freud's work during his academic years and, from the first, he recognized its paramount importance for anthropology. His later analytic training occurred chiefly under the guidance of Ferenc