He undertook further studies in psychiatry with Otto Pötzl in Vienna and in neurology with Kurt Goldstein, whose assistant he was for two years.

His interest in psychological problems led him to Freud's writings and ultimately to a training analysis in Vienna with Helene Deutsch.

He shared the building with the famous Institute for Social Research with whose members he came into contact and who at that time included, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse.

Among others he drew from him basic concepts like the primary socialisation of the individual, his need to belong to a group and his attachment to a transpersonal and cultural matrix.

After Hitler came to power, it was at the invitation of Ernest Jones that he travelled to London via Paris and settled in England in 1933 as a refugee with his wife Erna and their three children[1] and continued to work, becoming a training analyst.

He was called up in autumn 1940 and at the same time hit upon the idea of asking patients gathered in the waiting room to free-associate.

Both the GAS and the IGA have spawned numerous related professional associations and training bodies in the UK and several other countries.