Paula Heimann

Paula Heimann
Born (1899-02-02)2 February 1899
Gdańsk, German Empire
Died 22 October 1982(1982-10-22) (aged 83)
London, United Kingdom
Residence Germany, Poland, United Kingdom
Nationality German
Fields Psychiatry, psychoanalysis
Alma mater Heidelberg University
Thesis Über atypische Eisenreaktionen bei progressiver Paralyse ("On atypical iron reactions in progressive paralysis") (1925)
Known for Establishing the importance of countertransference in psychoanalysis
Spouse Franz Heimann (m. 1924 – 1933)
Children Mirza (b. 1925)

Paula Heimann (née Klatzko, 2 February 1899 – 22 October 1982) was a German psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, who established the phenomenon of countertransference as an important tool of psychoanalytic treatment.[1]

Life in Germany

After studying medicine in Königsberg, Berlin, and Frankfurt, Paula Klatzko took and passed her Staatsexamen (state exams) in Breslau. There she met her future husband, the physician Franz Heimann. Together they went to Heidelberg where she trained to be a psychiatrist from 1924–1927. She wrote her doctoral dissertation in 1925. Their daughter Mirza was born that same year. In 1927, the Heimann family moved to Berlin, where she began her psychoanalytic training under Theodor Reik in 1929. Together with her husband she was a member of the International Society of Doctors Against War.

Emigration and work in the United Kingdom

In 1933, Heimann's husband had to leave Germany because of his political views. He emigrated to Switzerland; however, Paula Heimann and her daughter were not permitted to do so. Thus mother and daughter emigrated to London.

In 1934 Heimann became Melanie Klein's secretary. In 1935 they started working together on analysis and became close associates. She passed the state medical examination in Edinburgh in 1938. That year she became a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society with her lecture A contribution to the problem of sublimation. Her article On counter-transference, presented at the Psychoanalytical Congress in 1949 in Zurich, led to a rift with the Kleinian group of analysts because she presented a different view of the importance of countertransference. Melanie Klein saw it only as a problem of the therapeutic process. Paula Heimann, however, saw the emotional reaction of the therapist to their patient as an important tool for the exploration of the latter's unconscious. She then turned to the Independents group[2] and was Margarete Mitscherlich's analyst during 1958–59. Alexander Mitscherlich also underwent training analysis with her.

Works

Notes

  1. ↑ Paula Heimann, On countertransference. In International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol .31, 1950, p.81-84
  2. ↑ Rayner, Eric, The British Independents: A Brief History, British Psychoanalytical Society, 2000

References

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