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Dr. Paul Federn, the internationally known psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, committed suicide by shooting at the age of 78, in May, 1950, in New York City. He had been ill for a year with cancer and was facing a surgical operation.
Dr. Federn was the eldest disciple of Sigmund Freud. He was born in Vienna, the son of a prominent physician, graduated from the University of Vienna in 1895, and became first assistant at the old Allgemeine Krankenhaus where he remained for five years. He then entered private practice and joined the psychoanalytic movement in 1901. He became a close friend and collaborator of Freud whose doctrines he always supported ardently and faithfully. He wrote numerous papers and books on several aspects of analytical psychiatry most of which were published in the German language. He was co-editor of the Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse and of the Zeitschrift für Psychoanalytische Pedagogik.
His life work was interrupted in 1938 by the Nazis who forced him to leave Vienna. He then came to the United States, settled in New York, and began anew, treating patients, teaching in the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and contributing articles to psychiatric journals.
During his last years in America he devoted himself largely to the study and treatment of psychoses. He was interested particularly in young schizophrenics with whom he often obtained favorable results by means of a special psychotherapy.
Dr. Federn will be remembered not only for his contributions to psychiatry and for his enthusiasm in discussing psychological issues in medical meetings but also for the fact that he was an exceptionally refined courteous gentleman, of what is known as the “old school,” a species which is unfortunately rapidly becoming extinct.
Surviving are two sons, Walter and Ernst, a daughter, Mrs. Anne Urbach, a sister Mrs. Etta Talhaas in France, and a brother, Robert in England.
Dr. John H. W. Van Ophuijs