Dr. Herman Nunberg was a native of Poland. He started medical school in Cracow, and completed his medical training in Zurich. There, at the famed Burghölzli Clinic, he studied under Bleuler and Jung. He returned to Cracow to practice, but with the outbreak of World War I emigrated to Vienna. He soon became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and has preserved a record of its proceedings in a book “Minutes of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society,” published in 1962.
In 1932 he completed the first text book of psychoanalysis, Allgemeine Neurosenlehre auf Psycho-analytischer Grundlage. This work won high praise from Freud and established Dr. Nunberg as a leading writer on the clinical and theoretical aspects of psychoanalysis.
Dr. Nunberg had, some years before, married Margarete Rie, daughter of Oskar Rie (who was pediatrician to the Freud children) and sister of Marianne Kris. Shortly before the Neurosenlehre appeared, he accepted an invitation to move to Philadelphia and to teach psychoanalysis there. After some pioneering years in Philadelphia, he moved on to New York and in 1941 became a member of the New York Psychoanalytic
Society. He remained an active member of the Faculty of the New York Institute until 1958, when he was 74; he served for some years as a member of its Educational Committee and for two terms as the Society President.
At his funeral on May 22, speakers emphasized his great dedication as a teacher and his devotion to his students. They paid tribute to his skill as a clinician and to his insistence, in both his teaching and his writings, that clinical data must be the starting point for theory-building.
Dr. Nunberg is survived by his widow, Margarete; a daughter, Mrs. Mena Sischy, a son, Dr. Henry Nunberg, three sisters and five grandchildren. His son Henry was completing his training at the New York Institute at the time of his father's death, and was graduated a month later.
The New York Psychoanalytic Society is planning Memorial meetings, some months hence for both Dr. Hartmann and Dr. Nunberg.