German Language Psychoanalysis Today*

For almost half a century psychological information has been flowing across the Atlantic almost exclusively in a west-east direction. This has led to a “linguistic isolation”1,6 of Anglo—American psychology, including psychoanalysis. While psychoanalysts in Austria, Switzerland, East Germany, and West Germany are familiar with the most recent publications in English, many of which have been translated into German, few colleagues on this side of the Atlantic are aware of the work done in Europe in languages other than English. Mitscherlich is one of the few German-language psychoanalysts whose books have been translated into English.15,17 An article entitled “On Psychoanalysis and Sociology,”16 with separate contributions by Mitscherlich and his co-workers at the Sigmund-Freud-Institut in Frankfurt (most of whom are sociologists), appeared in English in The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis.

Besides the Sigmund-Freud-Institut in Frankfurt there are numerous psychoanalytic training institutes in Austria, Switzerland, and West Germany that train both nonmedical and medical analysts. Just as in North America, there are different psychoanalytic societies in those three countries. Several psychoanalytic journals are being published