Karl Abraham
Nationality GermanFields psychiatry
Karl Abraham (3 May 1877 - 25 December 1925) was an early German psychoanalyst,
and a correspondent of Sigmund Freud, who called him his 'best pupil' [1]. He
founded the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, and was the president of the
International Psychoanalytical Association from 1914 to 1918 and again in 1925.
卡爾・亞伯拉罕 (1877年5月3日 - 1925年12月25日)是早期德国心理分析家。弗洛伊德的通信员，被Sigmund Freud称为『最佳的學生』 [1].
他建立了柏林精神分析的學院國際精神分析的協會主席 1914年從1918年1925。
Karl Abraham collaborated with Freud on the understanding of manic-depressive
illness, leading to Freud's paper on 'Mourning and Melancholia' in 1917. He was
the analyst of Melanie Klein during 1924-1925, and of a number of other British
psychoanalysts, including Edward Glover, James Glover, and Alix Strachey. He was
a mentor for an influential group of German analysts, including Karen Horney,
Helene Deutsch, and Franz Alexander.
Karl Abraham studied the role of infant sexuality in character development and
mental illness and, like Freud, suggested that if psychosexual development is
fixated at some point, mental disorders will likely emerge. He described the
personality traits and psychopathology that result from the oral and anal stages
of development (1921;1924a). In the oral stage of development, the first
relationships children have with objects (caretakers) determine their subsequent
relationship to reality. Oral satisfaction can result in self-assurance and
optimism, whereas oral fixation can lead to pessimism and depression. Moreover,
a person with an oral fixation will present a disinclination to take care of
him/herself and will require others to look after him/her This may be expressed
through extreme passivity (corresponding to the oral benign suckling substage)
or through a highly active oral-sadistic behaviour (corresponding to the later
sadistic biting substage) (1924a). In the anal stage, when the training in
cleanliness starts too early, conflicts may result between a conscious attitude
of obedience and an unconscious desire for resistance. This can lead to traits
such as frugality, orderliness and obstinacy, as well as to obsessional neurosis
as a result of anal fixation (Abraham,1921) . In addition, Abraham based his
understanding of manic-depressive illness on the study of the painter Segantini:
an actual event of loss is not itself sufficient to bring the psychological
disturbance involved in melancholic depression. This disturbance is linked with
disappointing incidents of early childhood; in the case of men always with the
mother (Abraham, 1911). This concept of the prooedipal “bad” mother was a new
development in contrast to Freud’s oedipal mother and paved the way for the
theories of Melanie Klein (May-Tolzmann,1997). Another important contribution is
his work “A short study of the Development of the Libido” (1924b), where he
elaborated on Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia” (1917) and demonstrated the
vicissitudes of normal and pathological object relations and reactions to object
loss. Moreover, Abraham investigated child sexual trauma and, like Freud,
proposed that sexual abuse was common among psychotic and neurotic patients.
Furthermore, he argued (1907) that dementia praecox is associated with child
sexual trauma, based on the relationship between hysteria and child sexual
trauma demonstrated by Freud.
Abraham (1920) also showed interest in cultural issues. He analyzed various
myths suggesting their relation to dreams (1909) and wrote an interpretation of
the spiritual activities of the monotheistic Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1912).
Publications
Selected Papers on Psycho-Analysis, Publisher: Karnac Books; 1997, ISBN
0-9501647-7-1
Quotes
A considerable number of persons are able to protect themselves against the
outbreak of serious neurotic phenomena only through intense work
What did we get ourselves into?
References
May, Ulrike (2007), “[Remarks on the Introduction to Karl Abraham's collected
works (1969-71)]”, Luzifer-Amor : Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse
20 (39): 145-52, 2007, PMID:17992845, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17992845>
Kuhn, P (2000), “A scandal in Salzburg or Freud's surreptitious role in the 1908
Abraham-Jung dispute.”, The International journal of psycho-analysis 81 ( Pt 4):
705-31, 2000 Aug, PMID:11028235, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11028235>
Sklarew, B (1999), “Freud and film: encounters in the Weltgeist.”, Journal of
the American Psychoanalytic Association 47 (4): 1238-47, 1999, PMID:10650559,
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10650559>
Machtlinger, V (1997), “[Karl Abraham and Giovanni Segantini]”, Luzifer-Amor :
Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse 10 (20): 81-97, 1997,
PMID:11625348, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11625348>
Decke, B (1997), “[Karl Abraham: family, childhood and youth in Bremen]”,
Luzifer-Amor : Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse 10 (20): 7-60, 1997,
PMID:11625347, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11625347>
Cremerius, J (1997), “[Karl Abraham, Freud's scapegoat and, guide to
understanding the truth]”, Luzifer-Amor : Zeitschrift zur Geschichte der
Psychoanalyse 10 (20): 64-80, 1997, PMID:11625346, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11625346>
Good, M I (1995), “Karl Abraham, Sigmund Freud, and the fate of the seduction
theory.”, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 43 (4): 1137-67,
1995, PMID:8926328, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8926328>
Shengold, L (1972), “A parapraxis of Freud's in relation to Karl Abraham.”, The
American imago; a psychoanalytic journal for the arts and sciences 29 (2):
123-59, 1972, PMID:4562662, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4562662>
Abraham, K.(1907). On the significance of Sexual Trauma in Childhood for the
Symptomatology of Dementia Praecox. In Hilda, C.,
Abraham, M.D.(Ed) (1955). Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho-Analysis. London
: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
Abraham, K.(1909). Dreams and Myths : A study in folk-Psychology. In Hilda, C.,
Abraham, M.D.(Ed) (1955). Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho-Analysis. London
: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis. Abraham, K.(1911).
Giovanni Segantini : A Psycho-analytical Study. In Hilda, C.,
Abraham, M.D.(Ed) (1955). Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho-Analysis. London
: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
Abraham, K. (1912). Amenhotep IV. Psycho-analytical Contributions Towards the
understanding of his Personality and of the Monotheistic Cult of Aton. . In
Hilda, C.,
Abraham, M.D.(Ed) (1955). Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho-Analysis. London
: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
Abraham, K. (1920). The Cultural Significance of Psycho-analysis. In Hilda, C.,
Abraham, M.D.(Ed) (1955). Clinical Papers and Essays on Psycho-Analysis. London
: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
Abraham, K (1921). Contributions to the theory of the anal character. In Stein,
D.J,
Stone, M. H. (Ed) (1997). Essential papers on obsessive-compulsive disorders.
New York: New York University Press.
Abraham, K (1924a). The influence of oral erotism on character-formation. In
Perzow, S.
M., Kets de Vries, M.F.R. (Ed) (1991). Handbook of character studies:
Psychoanalytic explorat
