Marie Bonaparte—1882-1962

On September 21st, 1962 Marie Bonaparte died in Saint Tropez after a brief illness. We lost one of that rapidly shrinking circle of psychoanalysts who not only were Freud's students, but were privileged to become his friends and to play an important role in a critical period of his life.

Marie Bonaparte's unusual life, about whose early phases she has told us so much in her autobiographical studies, had as many facets as her scintillating personality. She was a lonely semiorphan in the midst of glamor and wealth; although a Bonaparte, she belonged to a branch of the family who cherished a tradition of freedom and rebellion. Her father, Roland Bonaparte, was a man of intensive interest in science. Her husband, Prince George of Greece and Denmark, was a close relative of most European royalty. Marie Bonaparte was equally at home at a royal wedding as at a committee meeting of the International Psychoanalytic Association.

Such scientists as Le Bon, through whom she first became acquainted with Freud's work, Rigaud and Lacassagne from the Institute Curie, such statesmen as Aristide Briand were among her close friends. Many French and Greek men of letters as well as artists sought her friendship.

At an early age her insatiable curiosity was channeled into intellectual pursuits. She was an avid reader and had acquired an encyclopedic knowledge in many fields; but only after she had had a personal analysis, did all her faculties blossom, and was she able to achieve a high degree of original productivity. This was especially remarkable because she was already forty-three years old when she first met Freud.

Her bibliography contains over seventy original publications, not including her translations of Freud into French and the many translations of her papers and books into various languages. Her contributions covered many topics; to mention but a few, her work on female sexuality; her numerous papers on reconstruction in psychoanalysis in which, for the sake of science,