Helene Deutsch

Helene Deutsch (née Rosenbach; October 9, 1884 – March 29, 1982) was an Austrian-born Polish American psychoanalyst and colleague of Sigmund Freud. She was the first psychoanalyst to specialize in women.

Early life and family

Helene Deutsch was born in Przemyśl, then Austrian Galicia, to Jewish parents, Wilhelm and Regina Rosenbach, on 9 October 1884. She was the youngest of four children, with an older sister, Malvina, aged eleven, another sister, Gizela, aged seven, and a brother, Emil, aged ten. Although Deutsch's father had a German education, Helene (Rosenbach) attended private Polish-language schools. Born into a progressive section of Austrian Poland (Przemyśl), Helene grew up to see Poland partitioned by Russia, Prussia, and the Austria-Hungarian Empire. She grew up in a time of Polish nationalism and artistic creativity. As a result, Helene empathized with the works of Frédéric Chopin, and Polish literature, insisting on her Polish national identity, out of allegiance to a country that she and her siblings viewed as invaded. During her youth, Helene became involved in the defence of socialist ideals with Herman Lieberman, a Polish politician. Their relations lasted for more than ten years. She went with him to an International Socialist Conference in 1910 and met the majority of key socialist figures, such as the charismatic women : Angelica Balabanoff and Rosa Luxemburg (Tréhel, G., 2010).