Vera Schmidt (psychoanalyst)
Encyclopedia
Vera Fedorovna Schmidt was a Russian
educationist and one of the leading figures in the psychoanalytic movement in Russia during the "Silver Age". After the Russian Revolution (1917) she directed a highly innovative nursery school run on psychoanalytic principles.
s. Vera was later to say that her mother had a determining influence on her choice of career.She attended the Kiev Women’s Educational Institute for three years from 1913 to 1916 where she received a training in the methods of Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel. In 1913 she met and married Otto Schmidt
who was to become a renowned scientist and Arctic explorer.
By the outbreak of the revolution, they had both developed an interest in psychoanalysis
and Vera, who spoke German, had read Sigmund Freud
in the original. A supporter of the revolution, Otto Schmidt rose to positions of power and influence in the new Soviet regime becoming a member of a number of People's Commissariats including Narkompros (Narodnyi Komissariat Prosvescheniya, or the People's Commissariat for Education) and he was also employed as the director of the State Publishing House (Gosizdat) from 1921-1924. In this capacity, he was engaged in the publication of works by Freud and his daughter, Anna Freud
.
, who, after the revolution, at only nineteen, was a leader of the Kazan Psychoanalytical Circle, and Mosche Wulff (Moshe Woolf) (1878-1971) who had promoted psychoanalysis during the pre-revolutionary "Silver Age". The President of the Society was Ivan Ermakov who edited a nine volume series of Freud's work in Russian. He later became known for his Freudian literary criticism of Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol
. Otto Schmidt, in the mean time, became vice-president of the coordinating committee of the Moscow Psychoanalytic Society and the state backed, Psychoanalytic Institute which was headed by Ermakov.
) which opened in May 1921 in the center of Moscow and shared with the Psychoanalytic Institute the magnificent Art Nouveau building in Malaya Nikitskaya Street designed by Fyodor Schechtel
(August 7 1859 - July 7 1926). This was the former home of Stepan Ryabushinsky a rich merchant and chair of the stock exchange who left Russia after the revolution. Although Ivan Ermakov, president of the Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, was nominally in charge of the home, it was run by Vera Schmidt assisted initially by fifty-one staff members, among whom was Mosche Wulff and the prominent psychoanalyst, Sabina Spielrein
.
She, along with Luria, joined the Russian Psychoanalytical Society in 1923 having formerly been a member of the Swiss Psychoanalytical Society and was one of only a few trained psychoanalysts in Soviet Russia.
A historian of the psychoanalytical movement in the early years of the Soviet Union described how the home was funded. He also indicated the elite familial background of the children who attended it. Later, that Party elite came to be known as the nomenklatura
.
Vera Schmidt's own son, Vladimir, whose nickname was Wolik also attended the Detski Dom and she recorded his, as well as the other children's activities in journal. These were used as data regarding children's development by other Soviet psychologists such as Luria. The Detski Dom was virtually unique in its principles and practices and above all in its psychoanalytic approach. It was visited by several western Marxist psychoanalysts like Anna Mänchen-Helfen (1902-1991) and Annie Reich (1902-1971) together with her husband, Wilhelm Reich
.
Due to the German Trade union's financial support, the home also became known as the Solidarity International Laboratory Home. When that support ended, financial problems, together with internal dissension weakened the organisation of the Detski Dom which also came under external pressure as the psychoanalytic approach came under attack from supporters of Joseph Stalin
due to its association with his rival for power, Leon Trotsky
. Associated with the rise of Stalin and the Communist Party's turn away from psychoanalysis was the new science of childhood named pedology
which was promoted by Aron Zalkind (1888–1936) a former adherent of psychoanalysis but now its leading critic.
In early 1923 the Schmidts went to Vienna where they met Freud. They discussed with him the children's Home and the activities of the psychoanalytic movement in Russia. They also met other analysts, such as Otto Rank
and Karl Abraham
. Discussions focused mainly on psychoanalysis and the organization of the collective educational system. Following their visit, the Russian Psychoanalytic Association, became an associate member of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) in 1924 and later in 1927, Vera Schmidt became its secretary. In this year also, her book Psychoanalytical Education in Soviet Russia was published in Germany at Leipzig by the International Psychoanalytical Publishing House. This book was based on her experiences and observations in the Detski Dom and it was cited extensively by Wilhelm Reich.
On August 14, 1925, the Narkompros (Ministry of Public Education) closed the home and the building was later to become Gorky's home and later, the Gorky Museum. In an ironic turn of events, Stalin's son, Vasilii, Vasily Dzhugashvili
occupied the site of his former nursery after Gorky's death.
since its foundation in 1929. Vera Schmidt died at the age of 48 years while being operated on for a thyroid tumor.
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
educationist and one of the leading figures in the psychoanalytic movement in Russia during the "Silver Age". After the Russian Revolution (1917) she directed a highly innovative nursery school run on psychoanalytic principles.
Early life
Her parents were both physicians. She was particularly attached to her mother, Elisaveta Yanitskaïa, who treated children suffering from neurological disorderNeurological disorder
A neurological disorder is a disorder of the body's nervous system. Structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord, or in the nerves leading to or from them, can result in symptoms such as paralysis, muscle weakness, poor coordination, loss of sensation, seizures,...
s. Vera was later to say that her mother had a determining influence on her choice of career.She attended the Kiev Women’s Educational Institute for three years from 1913 to 1916 where she received a training in the methods of Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel. In 1913 she met and married Otto Schmidt
Otto Schmidt
Otto Yulyevich Schmidt was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesman, academician, Hero of the USSR , and member of the Communist Party.-Biography:He was born in Mogilev, Russian Empire...
who was to become a renowned scientist and Arctic explorer.
By the outbreak of the revolution, they had both developed an interest in psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
and Vera, who spoke German, had read Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
in the original. A supporter of the revolution, Otto Schmidt rose to positions of power and influence in the new Soviet regime becoming a member of a number of People's Commissariats including Narkompros (Narodnyi Komissariat Prosvescheniya, or the People's Commissariat for Education) and he was also employed as the director of the State Publishing House (Gosizdat) from 1921-1924. In this capacity, he was engaged in the publication of works by Freud and his daughter, Anna Freud
Anna Freud
Anna Freud was the sixth and last child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. Born in Vienna, she followed the path of her father and contributed to the newly born field of psychoanalysis...
.
Psychoanalysis in Soviet Russia
In 1921 the Narkompros established the Russian Psychoanalytical Society in Moscow, a body that later came to contain, among others, figures like Alexander LuriaAlexander Luria
Alexander Romanovich Luria was a famous Soviet neuropsychologist and developmental psychologist. He was one of the founders of neuropsychology and the jointly led the Vygotsky Circle.- Biography :...
, who, after the revolution, at only nineteen, was a leader of the Kazan Psychoanalytical Circle, and Mosche Wulff (Moshe Woolf) (1878-1971) who had promoted psychoanalysis during the pre-revolutionary "Silver Age". The President of the Society was Ivan Ermakov who edited a nine volume series of Freud's work in Russian. He later became known for his Freudian literary criticism of Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
. Otto Schmidt, in the mean time, became vice-president of the coordinating committee of the Moscow Psychoanalytic Society and the state backed, Psychoanalytic Institute which was headed by Ermakov.
The Detski Dom Laboratory
He was also officially responsible for the Detski Dom ("Children's Home", a Russian term for orphanageOrphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
) which opened in May 1921 in the center of Moscow and shared with the Psychoanalytic Institute the magnificent Art Nouveau building in Malaya Nikitskaya Street designed by Fyodor Schechtel
Fyodor Schechtel
Fyodor Osipovich Schechtel was a Russian architect, graphic artist and stage designer, the most influential and prolific master of Russian Art Nouveau and late Russian Revival....
(August 7 1859 - July 7 1926). This was the former home of Stepan Ryabushinsky a rich merchant and chair of the stock exchange who left Russia after the revolution. Although Ivan Ermakov, president of the Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, was nominally in charge of the home, it was run by Vera Schmidt assisted initially by fifty-one staff members, among whom was Mosche Wulff and the prominent psychoanalyst, Sabina Spielrein
Sabina Spielrein
Sabina Naftulovna Spielrein , born 7 November 1885, died 12 August 1942] , was one of the first female psychoanalysts. She studied under Carl Gustav Jung, with whom she was rumored to have had a romantic relationship...
.
She, along with Luria, joined the Russian Psychoanalytical Society in 1923 having formerly been a member of the Swiss Psychoanalytical Society and was one of only a few trained psychoanalysts in Soviet Russia.
A historian of the psychoanalytical movement in the early years of the Soviet Union described how the home was funded. He also indicated the elite familial background of the children who attended it. Later, that Party elite came to be known as the nomenklatura
Nomenklatura
The nomenklatura were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc., whose positions were granted only with approval by the...
.
"The Detski Dom was funded partly by the State partly by the share in profits from Freud's publications in Russian, partly by international support from a German Trade Union. In 1923, 18 educators were busy with 12 children from 2 to 4 years old. According to the unpublished Charter of the Kindergarten written by Ermakov, "the major part of the children are children of the Party executives who give all their time to their work and are not able to rear their children (Ermakov-Archive). In fact, it was an elite institution supported by the officials to keep their children in hard times. Luria recalled orally that among these children was the son of Stalin (Vasilii, born in 1921)"
Vera Schmidt's own son, Vladimir, whose nickname was Wolik also attended the Detski Dom and she recorded his, as well as the other children's activities in journal. These were used as data regarding children's development by other Soviet psychologists such as Luria. The Detski Dom was virtually unique in its principles and practices and above all in its psychoanalytic approach. It was visited by several western Marxist psychoanalysts like Anna Mänchen-Helfen (1902-1991) and Annie Reich (1902-1971) together with her husband, Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
.
Due to the German Trade union's financial support, the home also became known as the Solidarity International Laboratory Home. When that support ended, financial problems, together with internal dissension weakened the organisation of the Detski Dom which also came under external pressure as the psychoanalytic approach came under attack from supporters of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
due to its association with his rival for power, Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
. Associated with the rise of Stalin and the Communist Party's turn away from psychoanalysis was the new science of childhood named pedology
Pedology
Pedology may refer to:*Pedology *Pedology *Pediatrics...
which was promoted by Aron Zalkind (1888–1936) a former adherent of psychoanalysis but now its leading critic.
In early 1923 the Schmidts went to Vienna where they met Freud. They discussed with him the children's Home and the activities of the psychoanalytic movement in Russia. They also met other analysts, such as Otto Rank
Otto Rank
Otto Rank was an Austrian psychoanalyst, writer, teacher and therapist. Born in Vienna as Otto Rosenfeld, he was one of Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues for 20 years, a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, an editor of the two most important analytic journals, managing director of Freud's...
and Karl Abraham
Karl Abraham
-Further reading:* Freud, S. . Mourning and Melancholia. Standard Edition, 14, 305-307.* May-Tolzmann, U. . The Discovery of the Bad Mother: Abraham’s contribution to the theory of Depression...
. Discussions focused mainly on psychoanalysis and the organization of the collective educational system. Following their visit, the Russian Psychoanalytic Association, became an associate member of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) in 1924 and later in 1927, Vera Schmidt became its secretary. In this year also, her book Psychoanalytical Education in Soviet Russia was published in Germany at Leipzig by the International Psychoanalytical Publishing House. This book was based on her experiences and observations in the Detski Dom and it was cited extensively by Wilhelm Reich.
On August 14, 1925, the Narkompros (Ministry of Public Education) closed the home and the building was later to become Gorky's home and later, the Gorky Museum. In an ironic turn of events, Stalin's son, Vasilii, Vasily Dzhugashvili
Vasily Dzhugashvili
Vasily Iosifovich Dzhugashvili , known also as Vasily Stalin , , was the son of Joseph Stalin and his second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva....
occupied the site of his former nursery after Gorky's death.
Last years
In 1930, after the Russian Psychoanalytical Society was dissolved she worked at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences Experimental Institute of Defectology. The research carried out there was under the direction of Lev VygotskyLev Vygotsky
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist, the founder of cultural-historical psychology, and the leader of the Vygotsky Circle.-Biography:...
since its foundation in 1929. Vera Schmidt died at the age of 48 years while being operated on for a thyroid tumor.
Works
- Dnevnik materi: pervij god jizni (Diary of a mother: the first year of life) (2009). ISBN: 978-5-98904-050-6
External links
- Schmidt, Vera Federovna (1889-1937): International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis at soc.enotes.com
- Vera Federovna Schmidt: Information and Much More from Answers.com at www.answers.com
- Russia by Etkind at psychoanalyse.narod.ru
- Psychoanalytikerinnen. Biografisches Lexikon at www.psychoanalytikerinnen.de