George Devereux facts for kids
Georges Devereux (born György Dobó; September 13, 1908 – May 28, 1985) was a Hungarian-French expert in human cultures and a psychoanalyst. He is often seen as the person who started a field called ethnopsychiatry. This field combines the study of cultures (ethnology) with the study of the mind and mental health (psychiatry).
He was born into a Jewish family in a part of Austria-Hungary that is now Romania. After World War I, his family moved to France. He studied the Malayan language in Paris. In 1933, he became Catholic and changed his name to Georges Devereux. Around that time, he traveled to the United States to study the Mohave people. He earned his doctorate in anthropology in 1936. After World War II, Devereux became a psychoanalyst. He worked with Native Americans, using his knowledge of their cultures to help them. He is known as a pioneer in this area.
Devereux taught at several colleges in the United States. Around 1962, he returned to Paris. He became a director of studies at a famous school called École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), where he worked from 1963 to 1981. He also had his own private practice, helping people. Devereux wrote more than 400 books and articles. In 1993, a center named after him, the Centre George Devereux, was opened in Paris. It helps students and people in the community with mental health care.
His 1951 book, Reality and Dream, was about his work with a Native American Blackfoot man. This book was later made into a French movie called Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (2013).
Georges Devereux is buried in Arizona, on the land of the Colorado River Indian Tribes.
Contents
Early Life and Studies
Georges Devereux was born György Dobó in 1908 in Lugoj, which was then part of Austria-Hungary. His family was Hungarian Jewish and well-off. His father was a lawyer. As a child and teenager, he felt that adults were not always honest or respectful of children's feelings. His cousin was Edward Teller, a famous scientist. Growing up, György learned and spoke four languages: Hungarian, Romanian, German, and French.
He played the piano seriously when he was young. However, after an operation on his hand did not go well, he had to give up his dream of becoming a professional musician.
Education and First Steps in France
After World War I, his family moved from Romania to France. As a young man, György studied chemistry and physics in Paris with the famous scientist Marie Curie. He was looking for "objective truth" in science and "subjective truth" in music. Later in his writings, he often used ideas from natural sciences.
He got sick and had to stop his studies for a while. After he got better, Dobó moved to Leipzig, Germany, to learn about publishing. He then came back to Paris and decided to study something new. He joined the École des langues orientales, where he studied the Malay language and finished his studies in 1931. He became a student of important anthropologists like Marcel Mauss and Paul Rivet. He also became friends with Klaus Mann, a writer.
From 1931 to 1935, Dobó worked as a junior researcher at the Natural History Museum. In 1932, he received a special scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. This allowed him to travel to the United States for fieldwork.
Working in the United States
Georges Devereux moved to the southwestern United States. He did fieldwork, which means living with and studying different Native American groups. He spent time with the Mohave, Hopi, Yuma, and Cocopa people in California, Nevada, and Arizona. His first days in the U.S. were tough. He felt that some young American anthropologists did not trust or respect him.
Devereux said his time with the Mohave people was the happiest of his life. He lived with them five different times. He noticed that the Mohave paid a lot of attention to their dreams. He learned how they used dreams to understand things and get help. He said they "converted him to Freud," meaning they showed him how important dreams were, just like the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud believed.
In 1933, György Dobó became Catholic and took the French name Georges Devereux. As part of his anthropology work, he later traveled to Indochina to live among and study the Sedang Moi people. Devereux finished his PhD in anthropology in 1936 at the University of California-Berkeley.
Because he was so interested in dreams, Devereux decided to study psychoanalysis. This was a new field in the U.S. at the time. He completed his training in 1952 at the Topeka Institute of Psychoanalysis in Kansas.
From 1945 to 1953, Devereux worked at the Winter Veterans Hospital in Topeka. He was an ethnologist and research director. During this time, he helped and studied several Native American men who were dealing with mental illness. One of them was Jimmy Picard, a Blackfoot man, whom he later wrote about. Devereux used his knowledge of different cultures to help these men.
From 1953 to 1955, Devereux worked with children and teenagers in Philadelphia. In 1956, he became a professor of ethnopsychiatry at Temple University. In 1959, he moved to New York City and taught ethnology at Columbia University. During this time, he became a member of important psychoanalytic groups in both America and France.
Returning to France
In 1963, a famous anthropologist named Claude Lévi-Strauss invited Devereux to teach in Paris. Lévi-Strauss was known for introducing a way of thinking called structuralism to anthropology. Devereux became a director of studies at the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE) in Paris. He taught there until 1981.
His main book on how to do research, From Anxiety to Method in the Behavioral Sciences, was published in 1967. Devereux also worked with private patients and wrote many books and articles.
In his later years, Devereux studied ancient Greek history and culture. He wrote a book about how prophetic dreams (dreams that seem to predict the future) were used in Greek tragedies (plays).
How He Studied People (Methodology)
In his book From Anxiety to Method in the Behavioral Sciences, Devereux suggested a new way to think about how researchers study people. He used ideas from psychoanalysis. He believed that it was impossible for a researcher to be completely objective, meaning to observe things without any personal feelings or influence. In fact, he thought trying to be too objective could be unhelpful.
Instead, Devereux felt that the observer is always part of the study. Whatever they observe is always affected by their own act of observing. He said that the only information a researcher truly has is their own feelings and reactions to what they see.
Devereux believed that researchers should think about their relationship with the people they study in the same way a psychoanalyst thinks about their relationship with a patient. An analyst works with the feelings the patient has towards them (called transference) and their own feelings towards the patient (called countertransference). Devereux thought this approach should be used in any study that involves human feelings or behavior.
He also studied the works of other famous anthropologists who wrote about their own experiences and feelings during their research. Devereux is considered one of the French-speaking anthropologists who started new ways of doing research after World War II.
With a former student named Tobie Nathan, he started a journal called Ethnopsychiatrica in the 1970s.
His Impact on Others
Georges Devereux had a big impact, especially in Europe, on the field of ethnopsychiatry. Experts Andrew and Harriet Lyons said he was important in both France and the United States for those interested in combining psychoanalysis and anthropology. Since the late 1900s, many American anthropologists have started to agree with Devereux. They now publish studies that show how researchers' own feelings and presence can influence their work. He also applied this idea to psychoanalysis itself.
In France, Tobie Nathan and Marie Rose Moro continue Devereux's work in ethnopsychiatry. They especially help immigrants with therapy. In Switzerland, a group of ethnopsychoanalysts has also been greatly influenced by Devereux's ideas on how to do research.
His Legacy
- The Avicennes Hospital in France opened the first clinic for ethnopsychiatry.
- In 1993, the Centre George Devereux was created at the University of Paris 8 Saint Denis. It is part of the Psychology Department. It has a clinic for ethnopsychiatry that helps students and people in the community, including immigrants.
- His book, Reality and Dream: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (1951), was about his work with a Blackfoot Indian man in the United States. This book was made into a French film called Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (2013). The movie starred Benicio del Toro as Jimmy Picard and Mathieu Amalric as Georges Devereux. It was nominated for many awards.
Selected Writings
Devereux wrote over 400 texts. Here are some of his important books:
- Reality and Dream: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian, 1951
- From Anxiety to Method in the Behavioral Sciences, 1967
- Ethnopsychoanalysis: psychoanalysis and anthropology as complementary frames of reference, 1978
- Basic problems of ethnopsychiatry, 1980
- Dreams in Greek Tragedy: An Ethno-Psycho-Analytical Study, 1976
See also
In Spanish: Georges Devereux para niños
- Paul Parin
- Henri Ellenberger
