Karl Abraham

Karl Abraham, Life and Work, is the first complete biography of Karl Abraham (1877-1925), one of the pioneers of psychoanalysis. He was the first to follow Freuds example and set up a private psychoanalytic practice and was the founder and president of the Berlin society and in later years President of the IPA. He was also a member of the 'secret committee'. From 1912 till 1925 all important decisions in the psychoanalytic world were taken by Freud and his secret committee. During his lifetime Karl Abraham became the most important analyst after Freud. Karl Abraham had a profound influence on the development of psychoanalytic theory and was invaluable in his efforts to propagate its ideas. He made a series of original contributions to psychoanalytic theory that were adopted after his death, often without any accompanying mention of his name. His theories about depression, about early abandonment by the mother and about aggression in early childhood and the feelings of guilt it aroused left a lasting mark. Abraham stuck to Freuds theory closely, but even as early as 1911 he carved out his own path, and in doing so he seems to have been aiming to avoid excessive abstraction.In later years many of Abrahams analysands became leading psychoanalysts. He died very young at the age of 48. Melanie Klein who was in analysis with him when he died was deeply influenced by both the man and his work.