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Géza Róheim | |
|---|---|
| Born | 12 September 1891 |
| Died | 7 June 1953(1953-06-07) (aged 61) New York City, U.S. |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychoanalyst,anthropologist |
Géza Róheim (Hungarian:Róheim Géza[ˈroːhɛjmˈɡeːzɒ]; September 12, 1891 – June 7, 1953) was a Hungarianpsychoanalyst andanthropologist.
Considered by some as the most important anthropologist-psychoanalyst,[1] he is often credited with founding the field of psychoanalytic anthropology; was the first psychoanalytically trained anthropologist to dofield research; and later developed a generalcultural theory.
The only child of a prosperous Budapest family, Róheim studiedgeography andanthropology at the universities ofLeipzig,Berlin and eventuallyBudapest, where he received his doctorate in 1914. In 1919 he became the first professor of anthropology at the University of Budapest and a member of the local psychoanalytic society.
Róheim was analysed bySándor Ferenczi and became a training analyst with theBudapest Institute of Psychoanalysis.[2] Being Jewish, he was forced to leave Hungary in 1939, on the eve of theSecond World War. He settled inNew York City; and unable to return to communist controlled Hungary after the war, he spent the rest of his life in New York.
While unable to fit comfortably into academic anthropological circles in the U.S. — despite receiving support from figures likeMargaret Mead andEdward Sapir[3] — Róheim published prolifically there, and taught through a privately organised seminar.
Róheim is best known for his (and his wife Ilonka's) nine-month stay at or nearHermannsburg Lutheran Mission in central Australia in 1929 — a trip which generated great interest in psychoanalytic circles[why?][4] — and for his subsequent writings aboutArrernte andPitjantjatjara people. His research was used to supportErnest Jones in his debate withBronislaw Malinowski over the existence of theOedipus complex inmatrilineal societies.[5]
He also did fieldwork inMelanesia, native North America and theHorn of Africa.
His theory of culture stressed its rootedness in the long period of juvenile dependence in humans, which allowed for the possibility of exploration andplay.[6]
