Frieda Fromm-Reichmann (née Reichmann; October 23, 1889 in Karlsruhe, Germany – April 28, 1957 in Rockville, Maryland) was a German psychiatrist and contemporary of Sigmund Freud who immigrated to America during World War II.
[2] One of her aunts was instrumental in the establishment of kindergartens in Germany and one of her uncles, who owned the bank her father worked at, financed Frieda's college education.
During World War II, she financially supported more than a dozen family and friends, and advocated for their safe escape from persecution by the Nazis.
She developed deep meaningful friendships with colleagues Gertrud Jacob and Hilde Bruch, loved to play piano and listen to classical music, and dote on her beloved cocker spaniels.
When Gertrud Jacob fell ill also with tuberculosis, Frieda moved with her to Santa Fe, New Mexico to seek specialized treatment.
[citation needed] She had hereditary deafness and died from a heart attack in 1957 at her home at the Chestnut Lodge in Rockville, Maryland.
[citation needed] Her home was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021, in recognition of her influence in the development of interpersonal psychoanalysis in the mid-20th century.
After first completing six months of "domestic science" under her mother's tutelage, Frieda attended medical school in Königsberg in 1908 as one of the first women to study medicine.
She received her medical degree in 1913 and began a residency in neurology studying brain injuries with Kurt Goldstein, a neurologist and psychiatrist.
[10] When Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany and Jews began to be persecuted, Frieda moved to the Germany-France border where she rented two hotel rooms, one to sleep in and the other to see patients throughout the day.
When she fled Nazi Germany, several U.S. hospitals and institutions offered Fromm-Reichmann positions, but she was persuaded to come to Chestnut Lodge in 1936 by Dr. Dexter Bullard, its administrator, who promised to build her a home on the grounds.
[14] She is described as one of the few notable exceptions to Freud's maxim of charging for missed appointments: '"I feel that it is not the psychiatrist's privilege to be exempt from the generally accepted custom of our culture in which one is not paid for services not rendered", she wrote in her book Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy'.
[15] Despite major successes and growing fame, Frieda's work and person were criticized by contemporaries who vehemently denied her claims that schizophrenia could be treated with psychoanalysis.
An empiricist at heart, Frieda continued her work to demonstrate how the use of intuition and creativity applied to psychoanalysis could treat the most severe psychosis.
One year later, Frieda was the first woman and nonacademic member to be invited to Ford Foundation's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Palo Alto, CA).
"[16] Once fully recovered, Mrs. E told Frieda that taking her out of the restraints by herself was the starting point of her recovery; it had the connotation for her that her doctor did not consider her to be too dangerous to emerge from her mental disorder.
His wife, Hope Hale Davis, blamed Frieda for his suicide, stating, "the most elementary routine precautions had been neglected, and Hermann had used a belt to hang himself.
Following her Jewish roots, Frieda preferred the oral tradition of the Hasidic legend, "A story must be told in such a way that it constitutes help in itself.