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Max Eitingon
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<h2 id="life">Life</h2> <p>Eitingon was born to a wealthy <a href="/facts/Lithuanian_Jews/r642x1K3">Lithuanian Jewish</a> family in <a href="/facts/Mohilev/Q5KCRBgf">Mohilev</a>, <a href="/facts/Imperial_Russia/hg1g5SpV">Imperial Russia</a>, the son of a successful fur trader Chaim Eitingon. When he was twelve the family moved to <a href="/facts/Leipzig/KIqgMgLN">Leipzig</a>. He studied at private school and at universities in Halle, Heidelberg, and <a href="/facts/University_of_Marburg/L2BXUghC">Marburg</a> — studying philosophy under the <a href="/facts/Neo-Kantianism/2RdeEucp">neo-Kantian</a> <a href="/facts/Hermann_Cohen/cNJtp77h">Hermann Cohen</a> — before studying medicine at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Leipzig/r0Tw6Ebt">University of Leipzig</a> in 1902.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p><p>Before completing his dissertation, Eitingon worked as an intern at the <a href="/facts/Burgh%C3%B6lzli/jWXQWBw9">Burghölzli</a> psychiatric hospital in <a href="/facts/Zurich/dXpgq7df">Zurich</a>, directed by <a href="/facts/Eugen_Bleuler/LgJF5WWY">Eugen Bleuler</a> since 1898, where <a href="/facts/Carl_Jung/k651RvXp">Carl Jung</a> had been working since 1900. In 1907 Eitingon was sent by Bleuler to meet <a href="/facts/Freud/KKIYbom9">Freud</a>, and in 1908–1909 underwent five weeks of analysis with Freud: "This was indeed the first training analysis!"<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> He completed his dissertation, <i>Effect of an epileptic attack on mental associations</i>, with <a href="/facts/Carl_Jung/k651RvXp">Carl Jung</a>'s help, and settled in <a href="/facts/Berlin/pMTIRNXK">Berlin</a>. In 1913 he married Mirra Jacovleina Raigorodsky, an actress with the <a href="/facts/Moscow_Art_Theater/Bnx0j5RY">Moscow Art Theater</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p><p>During <a href="/facts/World_War_I/vITTUanQ">World War I</a> Eitingon became an Austrian citizen, joining the army as a doctor and using <a href="/facts/Hypnosis/3s0GqqJQ">hypnosis</a> to treat soldiers with <a href="/facts/War_trauma/9etKu7bX">war trauma</a>. Settling in Berlin after the war, he was invited by Freud to join the secret Psychoanalytic Committee.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> Eitingon financed the building of a polyclinic, using Freud's son <a href="/facts/Ernst_Freud/37fwUa0u">Ernst Freud</a> as architect. Eitingon, <a href="/facts/Karl_Abraham/NNrRVER9">Karl Abraham</a> and <a href="/facts/Ernst_Simmel/D04Xt5Cv">Ernst Simmel</a> ran the clinic until the rise of <a href="/facts/Nazism/JjsMI4lE">Nazism</a> in 1933.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> At the Budapest Congress in 1918, <a href="/facts/Hermann_Nunberg/n42NCkE2">Hermann Nunberg</a> had "declared that no one could any longer learn to practice psychoanalysis without having been analyzed himself":<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> as Eitingon's 1922 report made clear, this rule was formalized in the practice of the Polyclinic: </p> <blockquote><p>We are all firmly convinced that henceforth no one who has not been analyzed must aspire to the rank of practising analyst. It follows that the analysis of a student himself is an essential part of the curriculum and takes place at the Poliklinik in the second half of the training period, after a time of intensive theoretical preparation by lectures and courses of instruction.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a></p></blockquote> <p>At the 1925 <a href="/facts/Bad_Homburg/NxVM3wtf">Bad Homburg</a> Congress, Eitingon proposed that the Berlin system of psychoanalytic training should be made an international standard under an International Training Commission. Eitingon was appointed president of the ITC, and kept the position until his death in 1943.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> </p><p>After the family business suffered in the US <a href="/facts/Great_Depression/5K13wcg0">Great Depression</a>, Eitingon was forced for the first time to take a patient to earn his living. In 1932 he had a <a href="/facts/Cerebral_thrombosis/vH6FDIQG">cerebral thrombosis</a>. On Freud's advice, Eitingon left Germany in September 1933 and emigrated to Palestine. In 1934 he founded the Palestine Psychoanalytic Association in <a href="/facts/Jerusalem/PKJ8LT0Y">Jerusalem</a>. However, despite Freud's recommendation, he did not manage to gain a chair in psychoanalysis at the <a href="/facts/Hebrew_University_of_Jerusalem/aEpNukpQ">Hebrew University of Jerusalem</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> </p><p>Max Eitingon was described in several books as an important figure in a group of Soviet agents who conducted assassinations in Europe and Mexico, including murders of <a href="/facts/Ignace_Reiss/e8HRntsH">Ignace Reiss</a>, General <a href="/facts/Yevgeny_Miller/8H9j9Fq0">Yevgeny Miller</a>, and <a href="/facts/Lev_Sedov/4PQpWa2M">Lev Sedov</a>. The story was revived in the <i><a href="/facts/New_York_Times_Book_Review/w5fjfE0v">New York Times Book Review</a></i> by <a href="/facts/Stephen_Suleyman_Schwartz/ClgnCzAf">Stephen Suleyman Schwartz</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a> which resulted in a lengthy discussion between Schwartz, historians who wrote the books, and others who disputed the involvement of Eitingon in the team, such as <a href="/facts/Theodore_Draper/eEHeCQGY">Theodore Draper</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> and <a href="/facts/Walter_Laqueur/pIroDqoR">Walter Laqueur</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> The discussion was concluded by <a href="/facts/Robert_Conquest/A2Wp9abm">Robert Conquest</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a> who noted that although there is no direct proof of involvement of Max Eitingon in the murders, his financial interests in the Soviet Union and connections with all key members of team, including his brother <a href="/facts/Leonid_Eitingon/q4vdvs0z">Leonid Eitingon</a>, <a href="/facts/Nadezhda_Plevitskaya/tTXjV8Fy">Nadezhda Plevitskaya</a>, and <a href="/facts/Nikolai_Skoblin/LzXwS1ko">Nikolai Skoblin</a> who acted as an intermediary between <a href="/facts/NKVD/IA8Nwh1T">NKVD</a> and <a href="/facts/Gestapo/X0bHmeX1">Gestapo</a> in <a href="/facts/Case_of_Trotskyist_Anti-Soviet_Military_Organization/d3ce1A5R">Tukhachevsky affair</a>, are grounds for suspicion. </p><p>Eitingon died on 30 July 1943 in Jerusalem, and is buried on <a href="/facts/Mount_Scopus/VhGUqwDA">Mount Scopus</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="works">Works</h2> <ul><li>'Genie, Talent und Psychoanalyse', <i>Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse</i> 2 (1912) 539–540.</li> <li>'Gott und Vater', <i>Imago</i> 3 (1914), 90–93</li> <li>'Ein Fall von Verlesen', <i>Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse</i> 3 (1915), 349–350.</li> <li>'Zur psychoanalytischen Bewegung', <i>Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse</i> 8 (1922), 103–106.</li> <li>'Report of the Berlin Psychoanalytical Polyclinic', <i>Bulletin of the International Psychoanalytical Association</i> 4 (1923), 254.</li> <li>'Concluding remarks on the question of lay analysis', <i><a href="/facts/International_Journal_of_Psycho-Analysis/JdsRovDV">International Journal of Psycho-Analysis</a></i> 8 (1927), p. 399–401</li> <li>'Report of Marienbad Congress', <i><a href="/facts/International_Journal_of_Psycho-Analysis/JdsRovDV">International Journal of Psycho-Analysis</a></i> 18 (1937), p. 351</li> <li>'In the Dawn of Psychoanalysis', in M. Wulff (ed.) <i>Max Eitingon: in memoriam</i>, Jerusalem: Israel Psychoanalytic Society, 1950</li></ul> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Nahum_Eitingon/q4vdvs0z">Nahum Eitingon</a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22Eitingon%2C%20Max%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Max%20Eitingon%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Eitingon%2C%20Max%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Max%20Eitingon%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Eitingon%2C%20M%2E%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Max%20Eitingon%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Eitingon%2C%20Max%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Max%20Eitingon%22%29%20OR%20%28%221881-1943%22%20AND%20Eitingon%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29">Works by or about Max Eitingon</a> at the <a href="/facts/Internet_Archive/PHStU8Lo">Internet Archive</a></li> <li>Dmitry Olshansky, <a href="http://www.isfp.co.uk/russian_thinkers/max_eitingon.html">ISFP Gallery of Russian Thinkers: Max Eitingon</a></li> <li>René DesGroseillers, <a href="http://www.freudfile.org/eitingon.html">Max Eitingon</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Sidney L. Pomer, 'Max Eitingon (1881–1943): The Organization of Psychoanalytic Training', in Franz Alexander, Samuel Eisenstein & Martin Grotjahn, Psychoanalytic Pioneers, Transaction Publishers, 1995, pp.51–62 <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Moreau Ricaud, Michelle, 'Max Eitingon', International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Reprinted online at answers.com <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/eitingon-max" target="_blank">http://www.answers.com/topic/eitingon-max</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Sidney L. Pomer, 'Max Eitingon (1881–1943): The Organization of Psychoanalytic Training', in Franz Alexander, Samuel Eisenstein & Martin Grotjahn, Psychoanalytic Pioneers, Transaction Publishers, 1995, pp.51–62 <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Ernest Jones, Vol. II, 1957, quoted by Pomer, p.54 <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Moreau Ricaud, Michelle, 'Max Eitingon', International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Reprinted online at answers.com <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/eitingon-max" target="_blank">http://www.answers.com/topic/eitingon-max</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Richard Lourie, Hit Men, Freudians and Furriers, New York Times, 23 July 2010. (Review of Mary-Kay Wilmers, The Eitingons: A Twentieth-Century Story, Verso, 2010.) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/books/review/Lourie-t.html?_r=1" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/books/review/Lourie-t.html?_r=1</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Moreau Ricaud, Michelle, 'Max Eitingon', International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Reprinted online at answers.com <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/eitingon-max" target="_blank">http://www.answers.com/topic/eitingon-max</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Eitingon, 1937, quoted in Pomer. <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Eitingon, 1922, quoted in Pomer, p. 55 <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Sidney L. Pomer, 'Max Eitingon (1881–1943): The Organization of Psychoanalytic Training', in Franz Alexander, Samuel Eisenstein & Martin Grotjahn, Psychoanalytic Pioneers, Transaction Publishers, 1995, pp.51–62 <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Moreau Ricaud, Michelle, 'Max Eitingon', International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Reprinted online at answers.com <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/eitingon-max" target="_blank">http://www.answers.com/topic/eitingon-max</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>Stephen Schwartz, "Intellectuals and Assassins – Annals of Stalin's Killerati," New York Times Book Review, January 24, 1988, pp. 3, 30–31. <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Theodore Draper, "The Mystery of Max Eitingon," The New York Review of Books, April 14, 1988, pp. 32–43. <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>Stephen Schwartz, Vitaly Rapoport, Theodore Draper, and Walter Laqueur, "'The Mystery of Max Eitingon': An Exchange," The New York Review of Books, June 16, 1988, pp. 50–55. <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>Draper, Theodore, 'The mystery of Max Eitingon', New York Review of Books 35: 6 (14 April 1988), 32-43. Stephen Schwartz, Vitaly Rapoport, Walter Laqueur and Theodore H. Draper, 'The Mystery of Max Eitingon': An Exchange, New York Review of Books, 16 June 1988. <a href="/wiki/Stephen_Suleyman_Schwartz" target="_blank">/wiki/Stephen_Suleyman_Schwartz</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>Robert Conquest, Max Eitingon: another view, The New York Times, 3 July 1988 <a href="/wiki/Robert_Conquest" target="_blank">/wiki/Robert_Conquest</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:17"><p>Sidney L. Pomer, 'Max Eitingon (1881–1943): The Organization of Psychoanalytic Training', in Franz Alexander, Samuel Eisenstein & Martin Grotjahn, Psychoanalytic Pioneers, Transaction Publishers, 1995, pp.51–62 <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>