Heinz Hartmann facts for kids
Heinz Hartmann (born November 4, 1894, in Vienna, Austria – died May 17, 1970, in Stony Point, New York) was a famous psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He is known as one of the main people who started and developed a field called ego psychology.
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Life of Heinz Hartmann
Hartmann was born in Vienna in 1894. His family was well-known for being writers and smart people. His grandfathers were a famous poet and a respected surgeon. His father was a history professor and helped start libraries. His mother was a talented pianist and sculptor.
Heinz Hartmann studied at the University of Vienna. He earned his medical degree in 1920. He then became a psychiatrist at a clinic. There, he started to become very interested in the ideas of Sigmund Freud.
Hartmann wanted to train with a famous psychoanalyst named Karl Abraham. Sadly, Abraham passed away. So, Hartmann instead began his training analysis with Sándor Radó. In 1927, he wrote a book called Grundlagen der Psychoanalyse. This book hinted at his future ideas about ego psychology.
Later, a university in the United States offered Hartmann a job as a professor. But Freud offered to teach Hartmann for free if he stayed in Vienna. Hartmann chose to stay and learn directly from Freud. He became one of Freud's favorite and most promising students.
In 1937, Hartmann gave an important talk in Vienna. He spoke about the psychology of the "ego." This topic later became the main idea behind ego psychology.
In 1938, he and his family had to leave Austria. They were escaping the Nazis. They traveled through Paris and Switzerland. In 1941, they arrived in New York. There, Hartmann quickly became a leading thinker in the New York Psychoanalytic Society. He worked closely with Ernst Kris and Rudolph Loewenstein. They wrote many articles together. People called them the "ego-psychology triumvirate."
In 1945, he started an annual publication. It was called The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child. He created it with Ernst Kris and Anna Freud. In the 1950s, he became the president of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). After several years, he was given the special title of lifetime president.
Hartmann's Writings and Influence
Hartmann's first article was published in 1922. It was about a feeling called depersonalization. After that, he wrote many studies. These studies looked at mental illnesses, nervous conditions, and even twins.
In 1939, Hartmann wrote a very important paper. He showed that people often focused too much on mental conflicts. He pointed out that there is also a "sphere without conflict." This means parts of our mind work without inner struggles. This idea became very important in ego psychology. In the same year, he also helped define what "normal" and "healthy" mean in psychology.
Ego psychology grew to be very important in psychoanalysis. It shifted focus from basic instincts. Instead, it looked at how the ego helps us adapt to the world. This helped psychology and psychoanalysis become closer. For about 50 years, ego psychology was the main type of psychoanalysis in the United States. It was also a starting point for other theories. For example, self psychology by Heinz Kohut was based on some of Hartmann's ideas.
Criticism of Ego Psychology
Some people, like Jacques Lacan, strongly disagreed with ego psychology. Lacan felt that focusing on the "conflict-free zone" and adapting to reality was not true psychoanalysis.
However, many agree that ego psychology still has strong roots in Freud's original ideas. It might not be the only way to understand Freud, but it is definitely connected.
See also
In Spanish: Heinz Hartmann para niños
- Defence mechanisms
