August Aichhorn

August Aichhorn (July 27, 1878 - October 13, 1949) was an Austrian educator and psychoanalyst who was a native of Vienna. He was initially an elementary school teacher in Vienna, and in 1918, following World War I was responsible for setting up educational centers for problem youth in Lower Austria. His success in this endeavor led him to be encouraged by Anna Freud (1895-1982) to enrol in psychoanalytic training at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute in 1922. Soon afterwards, Aichhorn set up a child guidance service for the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. During World War II he was a training analyst for psychiatrists in Vienna, and following the war Aichhorn took legal maneuvers to reopen the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, which was later renamed the "August Aichhorn Gesellschaft".

August Aichhorn is considered a founder of psychoanalytic education. He is remembered for his work with juvenile delinquent and disadvantaged youth. He believed that imposed discipline and suppression which were practiced in traditional reformatories yielded few positive results. Aichhorn was known for his intuitive talents in dealing with the antisocial nature of troubled adolescents, and his unorthodox approach in handling their aggressive tendencies. Aichhorn was an advocate of the idea that there was a distinction between manifest and latent delinquency, and believed that arrested development in youth was a precursor to antisocial behavior. He also believed that this situation was caused by disturbances in early child-parent relationships.

Aichhorn's best known written work was his 1925 "Verwahrloste Jungend" (Wayward Youth), which is still regarded as a relevant resource. Also, the "August Aichhorn Center for Adolescent Residential Care" in New York is named after him.

Writings

* "Verwahrloste Jugend: Die Psychoanalyse in d. Fürsorgeerziehung ; 10 Vorträge zur ersten Einführung" (preface by Sigmund Freud), Wien : Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag, 1925, last edition: 11th ed. Bern: Huber, 2005, ISBN 3456842600 - engl. "Wayward Youth", New York: Viking Press, 1935, also: Northwestern University Press, Reprint 1984 (also translated into french and spanish)
* "Erziehungsberatung und Erziehungshilfe: 12 Vorträge über psychoanalytische Pädagogik. Aus d. Nachlass August Aichhorns", Bern : Huber, 1959, Paperback Edition: Reinbek (near Hamburg) : Rowohlt, 1972
* "Psychoanalyse und Erziehungsberatung", Frankfurt (am Main) : Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1974

Secondary Literature

english
*Kurt R. Eissler (ed.): Searchlights on Delinquency. New Psychoanalytic Studies. Dedicated to Professor August Aichhorn, on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, July 27, 1948. New York.Contributions: Ernest Jones, Kurt R. Eissler, Paul Federn, Heinrich Meng, Oskar Pfister, Laureta Benda, Joseph. B. Cramer, Kata F. Levy, Margaret S. Mahler, Ernst Simmel, Editha Sterba, S.A. Szurek, John M. Dorsey, Willi Hoffer, Hyman S. Lipman, C.P. Oberndorf, Melitta Schmideberg, Anna Freud, Kate Friedländer, Margaret E. Fries, Adelaide M Johnson, Jeanne Lampl-de Groot, Fritz Wittels, M. Woolf, Paul Bergman, Dorothy T. Burlingham, Ruth S. Eissler, Martin Grotjahn, Fritz Redl, Gregory Zilboorg, Edith Jacobson, Paul Reiwald, Hans Zulliger, Dorothy Archibald, G. Bose, Edward Glover, Nelly H.C. Tibout.
*Paul Kramer: "In Memoriam August Aichhorn" in: "Psychoanalytic Quarterly", 1949
* Ernst Federn: "The therapeutic personality, as illustrated by Paul Federn and August Aichhorn" in: "Psychoanalytic Quarterly", Vol 36.1962
*Edith Buxbaum, "Three great Psychoanalytic Educators (Bernfeld, Aichhorn, A. Freud)" in. "The Reiss Davis Clinic Bulletin", Vol. 3, No. 1. Los Angeles.1966
* Georg Mohr, "August Aichhorn. Friend of the Wayward Youth" In: Alexander, F., Eisenstein, S., Grotjahn, M. (Ed.): "Psychoanalytic Pioneers", New York,1966
*Paul Kramer, "Introduction" in: August Aichhorn: "Delinquency and Child Guidance", New York, 1967
*JE. Schowalter: "Aichhorn revisited" in: "The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child". 2000;55:49-60.

german
* Thomas Aichhorn: "Wer war August Aichhorn. Briefe, Dokumente, Unveröffentlichte Arbeiten". Löcker & Wögenstein, Wien 1976.
* Thomas Aichhorn (Hrsg.): "Zur Geschichte der Wiener Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung". Band 1: "1938-1949". Edition Diskord, Tübingen 2003.
* Ernst Federn: „Die therapeutische Persönlichkeit, erläutert am Beispiel von Paul Federn und August Aichhorn“. In: Ders.: "Ein Leben mit der Psychoanalyse. Von Wien über Buchenwald und die USA zurück nach Wien". Psychosozial-Verlag, Wien 1999, ISBN 3-932133-86-2.
* Roland Kaufhold: „Zur Geschichte und Aktualität der Psychoanalytischen Pädagogik: Fragen an Rudolf Ekstein und Ernst Federn“. In: Roland Kaufhold (Hrsg.): "Pioniere der Psychoanalytischen Pädagogik: Bruno Bettelheim, Rudolf Ekstein, Ernst Federn und Siegfried Bernfeld". Psychosozial-Verl., Gießen 1993, ISBN 3-930096-23-4 (="psychosozial" 53, Jg. 16, Heft 1), S. 9–19.
* Roland Kaufhold: „Spurensuche zur Geschichte der die USA emigrierten Wiener Psychoanalytischen Pädagogen“ In: Thomas Aichhorn (Hrsg.): "Zur Geschichte der Wiener Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung". Band 1: "1938-1949". Edition Diskord, Tübingen 2003, S. 37-69.
*Achim Perner, "Der Beitrag August Aichhorns zur Technik der Psychoanalyse" in: "Luzifer Amor" - Heft 36, Zur Geschichte der psychoanalytischen Technik

External links

* [http://apsa.org/AboutPsychoanalysis/NotedPsychoanalysts/tabid/204/Default.aspx#aichhorn American Psychoanalytic Association; Biographies]
* [http://www.August-Aichhorn-Institut.de August Aichhorn Institute, Berlin]