Charles Odier

Dr. Charles Odier was born in Geneva in 1888 and died, after a prolonged illness, on 28 July, 1954, at Lausanne.

After his medical studies, which he followed in Geneva, he worked as resident in neurology and psychiatry at Vienna. Thereafter he pursued his studies in medicine in Geneva and Paris and practised for a few years in Geneva.

While attending the lectures of Professor Théodore Flournoy, Dr. Odier took an increasing interest in the study of neurosis. In 1914 he wrote on symbolism in hysterical contractions. He went to Holland in 1922, and was analyzed by Ophuysen. Returning thence, he continued in general practice, but at the same time began work as a specialist. In 1925 he wrote his first book on the Oedipus complex, testifying to his wide understanding of the unconscious processes.

At the first conference of French-speaking psycho-analysts, held in Geneva in 1927, Dr. Odier presented an authoritative report on the various defence mechanisms used by obsessive compulsive and phobic patients. Finding that many French colleagues were becoming interested in his research, he decided to leave for Berlin, to complete his preparation at the Psycho-Analytic Institute of that city. Thereafter, settling down as a specialist in Paris, he practised in France from 1929 to 1939. He delivered several papers to the Psycho-Analytical Society in Paris, lectured at the Institute, and became co-editor of the Revue française de Psychanalyse. His leadership was at once appreciated. As a scrupulous and subtle exponent of the teaching of Freud and his pupils, he succeeded in clarifying to the French mind the often obscure ideas of his German colleagues: and he played a great part in providing a French vocabulary for the language of psycho-analysis.

In 1939 Dr. Odier returned to Switzerland and settled at Lausanne. His first years there were mainly devoted to preparing a number of books. In Les deux sources conscientes et inconscientes de la vie morale (The Two Sources, Cons