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The history of the psychoanalytic movement in Poland is marked by recurrent loss. Therefore, it can be said that there were several beginnings.
Historical and social circumstances hindered or prevented the establishment of an institutional form of this movement for a long time. What is most characteristic of the psychoanalytic movement in Poland is the enthusiasm and passion, as well as the profiles of the most significant people dedicated to the idea of psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalytic thought in Poland was present almost from the very beginning of its formulation by Sigmund Freud. (Dybel 2016; Magnone 2016) At that time, and until 1918, Poland did not exist as a state, being divided into three parts among the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany, and Russia. For this reason, many people studied not only in Cracow or Warsaw, but also in the major centres of scientific life in the area—in Vienna, Berlin and, less often, in Moscow.
As the authors of the exhibition on the history of Polish psychoanalysis† wrote:
Among the members of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society until 1938, as many as 19 people were born on land recognized as Polish. Some of these people were also members of the Berlin Society. They were: Sigfried Bernfeld, Berta Bornstein, Stefania Borstein-Windholz ,Gustaw Bychowski, Bernhard Dattner, Helena Deutsch, Ludwik Eidelberg, Salomea Gutmann-Isakower, Ludwik Jekels, Salomea Kempner, Edward Krohengold, Johaness Jaroslaw Marcinkowski, Hermann Nunberg, Beata Rank, Jozef Reinhold, Izydor Isaak Sadger, Max Schur, Eugenia Sokolnicka, Jenny Wälder.
Poland was a multinational country at the time, and the above mentioned people were of different nationalities. Some of them came from assimilated Jewish families, some from mixed Polish-Jewish families or from Polish-German families. However, most of them were strongly associated with Polish culture. Several people in this group felt Polish and maintained a strong bond with Poland. They tried to instill psychoanalytic ideas