Fenichel, Otto

Biography

Fenichel was born on December 2, 1897 in Vienna; MD, University of Vienna, 1921; at age 17, decided to become a psychoanalyst and began his training while a medical student; moved to Berlin in 1922 to complete his training at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute; appointed an assistant (1923) and a training analyst (1925) at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Clinic; traveled to the Soviet Union in 1929 and 1932; in 1933 went to Oslo to undertake the training of psychoanalysts, and did the same in Prague two years later; fleeing the Nazis, he moved to Los Angeles in 1938; Fenichel was a Marxist, and insisted that psychology needed to be studied in a societal context; publications include The Outline of Clinical Psychoanalysis (1934), Problems of Psychoanalytic Technique (1941) and The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (1945); he died on January 22, 1946.

From the guide to the Otto Fenichel Papers, 1903-1953, (University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.)

Biographical Note

Otto Fenichel

• 1897, Dec. 2: Born, Vienna, Austria
• 1921: M.D., University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
• 1922: Moved to Berlin, Germany, to complete training at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute
• 1923 - 1925 : Assistant and training analyst at Berlin Psychoanalytic Clinic, Berlin, Germany
• 1926: Married Clare Nathansohn (divorced 1940)
• 1929: Traveled to the Soviet Union (also in 1932 and 1934)
• 1933: Left Berlin, Germany, because of political climate Moved to Oslo, Norway, to train psychoanalysts
• 1934: Published The Outline of Clinical Psychoanalysis (New York: Psychoanalytic Quarterly Press and W. W. Norton Co. 492 pp.)
• 1935: Moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to train psychoanalysts
• 1938: Immigrated to Los Angeles, Calif.
• 1939: Published Problems of Psychoanalytic Technique (Albany, New York: Psychoanalytic Quarterly Press. 130 pp.)
• 1940: Married Hanna Heilborn
• 1945: Published The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (New York: W. W. Norton & Co. 703 pp.)
• 1946, Jan. 22: Died, Los Angeles, Calif.
• 1953 - 1954 : Posthumous publication of Collected Papers of Otto Fenichel (New York: W. W. Norton & Co. 2 vols.)

From the guide to the Otto Fenichel and Hanna Fenichel Papers, 1934-1953, (bulk 1938-1945), (Manuscript Division Library of Congress)