The Psychoanalytic Life of Elisabeth Young-Bruehl

memorial

Paul H. Elovitz

Intro

While walking home from a concert in Toronto this past December, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl (March 3, 1946-December 1, 2011) suddenly died as a result of a pulmonary embolism. She was a psychoanalyst, philosopher, and well-known author and lecturer who first gained recognition for her prize-winning biographies of Hannah Arendt and Anna Freud. The American Association of Publishers named her The Anatomy of Prejudices “Best Book in Psychology” for 1996. Young-Bruehl was a featured scholar in the December 2005 edition of Clio’s Psyche (Vol. 12, No. 3).

Keywords:

American Association of Publishers, The Anatomy of Prejudices, Anna Freud, Clio’s Psyche, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Hannah Arendt, memorial, philosophy, psychoanalysis, psychobiography, psychohistory

Page 490

Elisabeth Young-Bruehl’s maternal ancestors came to America on the Mayflower and paternal ones were part of the Jamestown Settlement. She was born, raised, and educated in Maryland prior to attending Sarah Lawrence College and the New School for Social Research. She completed her MA and PhD in philosophy under her mentor, Hannah Arendt, and later trained at the Philadelphia Association for Psychoanalysis. Young-Bruehl taught at Wesleyan University, Haverford College, Bryn Mawr University, and the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis. She also lectured and offered seminars internationally on feminism, philosophy, the history of psychoanalysis, and psychoanalysis. Among her publications are Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World (1982); Anna Freud: A Biography (1988); Freedom and Karl Jaspers’s Philosophy (1981); Mind and the Body Politic (1989); Freud on Women (1990, an anthology); Creative Characters (1991); The Anatomy of Prejudices (1996); Subject to Biography: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Writing Women’s Lives (1998); Cherishment: A Psychology of the Heart (2000); Where Do We Fall When We Fall In Love? (2003), Why Arendt Matters (2006); and posthumously Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children (2012). Young-Bruehl moved to Toronto in 2007, where she was active in psychoanalytic circles, blogged extensively, and conducted analytic treatment. Editorial boards on which she served include American Psychoanalytic Association, The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, American Imago, Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, and the new journals Studies in Gender and Sexuality and Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society.

Elisabeth Young-Bruehl is survived by her partner, Christine Dunbar; her brother and sister; several nieces and nephews, and two step grandchildren.

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About the author

Paul H. Elovitz

Dr. Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, began organizing scholarly meetings when he started as a faculty member at Ramapo College and then as convener of the Institute for Psychohistory Saturday Workshops (1975-1982). In 1982, he founded the Psychohistory Forum to nurture psychohistorical research and continues to lead its Executive Council. In 1994, he created Clio’s Psyche (cliospsyche.org) to publish its scholarship, of which he is Editor-in-Chief. Prof. Elovitz is a historian, psychoanalytic researcher, and author of well over 400 publications, covering presidential psychobiography, teaching, documenting the field of psychohistory, and much more. After taking his doctoral degree in history, he trained and practiced as a psychoanalyst for three decades, and in 2019 was made the first Research Psychoanalyst by the New Jersey Institute for Psychoanalysis. Elovitz is the author of The Making of Psychohistory, editor of The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory, and edited or wrote eight other books. He is a founding member and past president of the International Psychohistorical Association (1978-) who held all but one of its offices and continues to serve on its leadership council. He is the sole founder of the IPhA who has attended and presented at all of its annual meetings. In recent years, he has devoted himself to editing, publishing, and writing psychobiography. Prof. Elovitz was a founding faculty member at Ramapo College who previously taught at Temple, Rutgers, and Fairleigh Dickinson universities. Aside from teaching Western and World Civilizations, his focus on teaching was on American, English, and European history; childhood; gender; genocide; the Holocaust; identity; leadership; psychobiography; psychohistory; the psychology of creativity and innovation; and war and peace. Presently, he teaches post-graduate courses on creativity, psychoanalysis, psychobiography, and other aspects of psychohistory online at psychoanalytic institutes. A Festschrift honoring him is scheduled for publication in Clio’s Psyche in 2024. He may be contacted at .

How to cite this article

Elovitz, P. H. (2012). The psychoanalytic life of Elisabeth Young-Bruehl [Memorial]. Clio’s Psyche, 18(4), 490-491.

https://doi.org/10.70763/02b5b45ce743bc3f285ec4d39b5968c3

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