Dr. Endre Almásy

Dr. Endre Almásy, member of the Hungarian Psycho-Analytical Society, died in Budapest on 1 May, 1956, in his fifty-sixth year, after a short illness. He rendered extraordinary services to the Psycho-Analytical Society in days when the existence of the Society was endangered, services which should not be forgotten.

Endre Almásy was born in Lugos, a small country town, then in Hungary, now belonging to Rumania. He obtained his degree at the University of Budapest; worked for years at a State Mental Hospital as psychiatrist; and received his analytical training in the Hungarian Psycho-Analytical Society, of which he became a regular member in 1931. His first published paper appeared in the Ferenczi Memorial Volume, 1933. He soon became a member of the training committee, head of the Psycho-Analytical Clinic, and took over the Presidency of the Society when the danger of Nazism was approaching. In this so-called Horthy era the Jewish population suffered increasingly under economic and social restrictions; the Society diminished in numbers owing to emigration, and the fate of analysis in neighbouring Austria was already sealed. It was then that Dr. Almásy, as one of the few members of non-Jewish descent, tried to keep things working, as far as conditions permitted. He made use of all the resources at his command, even exposing himself to personal danger, as often as the existence of the Society was attacked. After the invasion of Hungary by the Germans his main concern was to save the Society's library, which at that time contained also a great part of Ferenczi's valuable collection.

It was due to his brave stand for the cause of psycho-analysis that the Society as such continued to exist, and could take up work again as soon as the war was over. At that time he felt his mission was ended and laid down the Presidency of the Society, which finally four years later was dissolved. When under the present régime former and even leading members of the Society denied an