WINTERSTEIN, ALFRED FREIHERR VON (1885-1958)

Austrian psychoanalyst Alfred Freiherr von Winter-stein was born on September 25, 1885, in Vienna, where he died on April 28, 1958.

Educated at the famous Theresianische Akademie and the Franz Josefs-Gymnasium, Winterstein obtained his Matura (or baccalaureate) in 1903. He completed his law studies in 1905.

After reading The Interpretation of Dreams (1900a), Winterstein contacted Freud, attended his lectures, and in 1910 became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. At that time he was writing articles for the Neue Freie Presse, a bourgeois liberal newspaper, and publishing poems in Karl Kraus's Die Fackel. He also wrote plays and was member of the Pen Club. Winterstein submitted his thesis in 1911 and worked for a time under the famous experimental psychologist Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig. During a visit to Burghölzli, while staying with Eugen Bleuler, he began an analysis with Carl Jung.

During the First World War, Winterstein was in the dragoons and, after four years of duty, was promoted to cavalry captain. Returning to Vienna, he continued an analysis with Eduard Hitschmann and began practicing analysis himself. He was interested in the application of analytic ideas to literature and especially in the psychoanalysis of parapsychological phenomena.

After the Nazi Anschluss, Winterstein elected to remain in Vienna, but because by the Nuremberg laws he was not considered a "pure Aryan," he was forbidden to practice psychotherapy; this was also the case with August Aichhorn, the only other member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society who remained in the city during the war.

Winterstein employed the war years to write a book on Adalbert Stifter, the great Austrian writer, poet, and painter. His Adalbert Stifter, Persönlichkeit und Werk: eine tiefenpsychologische Studie was published in 1946.

After 1945, Winterstein played a role in reconstituting the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, serving as its president from 1949. He enjoyed an international reputation and was invited in 1953 and 1955 to lecture at meetings of International Psychoanalytical Association. In 1957, poor health led to his retirement.

Harald Leupold-LÖwenthal

See also: Austria; Wiener psychoanalytische Vereinigung.

Bibliography

Winterstein, Alfred F. (1911). Drei Fälle von Versprechen. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 2, 292-293.

——. (1920). Die Nausikaepisode in der Odyssee. Imago, 6, 349-383.

——. (1928). Die Pubertätstriten der Mädchen und ihre Spuren im Märchen: eine psychoanalytische Studie. Imago, 14, 199-274.

——. (1934). Contributions to the problem of humor. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 3, 303-316.

——. (1946). Adalbert Stifter, Persönlichkeit und Werk: eine psychoanalytische Studie. Vienna: Phönix.

——. (1949). Telepathie und Hellsehen im Lichte der modernen Forschung und wissenschaftlichen Kritik. Vienna:Phönix.

——. (1954). A typical dream-sensation and its meaning. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 35, 229-233.

——. (1956). On the oral basis of a case of male homosexuality. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 37, 298-302.