Gerda Barag (1909–1981)

On 26 August 1981, Dr Gerda Barag died after a short illness. She is survived by her son, a professor of archaeology and her daughter, a psychiatrist.

Dr Barag was one of the veteran psychoanalysts in Israel, a didactic person, treasurer of the Association for 20 years, a member of the international Israeli Society. She taught at the Israel Psychoanalytic Institute for many years and at the School of Psychiatry of the Tel Aviv University.

Dr Barag was born in Berlin on 11 August 1909, the daughter of a doctor. She was a member of the Zionist movement from the days of her youth. She completed her medical studies in Berlin, but with the rise of the Nazi régime in Germany, she was unable to take her qualifying examinations. After residing in Switzerland, she returned to take her exams and in 1938, she received her doctorate. In that year she and her husband Dr Gershon Barag (psychiatrist–psychoanalyst) immigrated to Israel, where she completed her post graduate studies in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. She was among the first members of the Association. The members met in her home for business and social reasons. It can be said that Dr Barag was one of the mainstays of the Association, who worked for its progress and advancement. She fulfilled this function with devotion and love until her last days.

The period of her immigration was a pioneering one. The Israeli society saw itself as a pioneering society, emphasizing construction, reclamation of swamps, planting of the desert, and building of a Socialist society. The stress at that time was on manual labour and building in the literal meaning of the word. This society paid little attention to emotional problems, emotional processes, their significance and their implications for the individual and for the society. Work in the fields was the only kind of work respected and cherished by the Israeli society of the time.

Dr Barag had a pioneering spirit and she fought to gain a position for new values and concept