Hedda Bolgar
| Hedda Bolgar | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 19, 1909 Switzerland |
| Died | May 13, 2013 (aged 103) |
| Alma mater | PhD, University of Vienna, 1934, Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute |
| Occupation | Psychoanalyst |
| Employer | Mt. Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies, The Wright Institute of Los Angeles, (1970-), Hedda Bolgar Psychotherapy Clinic, (1974-) |
| Spouse(s) | Herbert Bekker |
| Parent(s) | Elek Bolgar, Elza Stern |
Hedda Bolgar (August 19, 1909 – May 13, 2013) was a psychoanalyst in Los Angeles, California, who maintained an active practice when she was over 100 years old.[1] She saw patients four days a week at age 102.[2]
Early life
Bolgar was born in Zurich, Switzerland, on August 19, 1909. She was the only child of Elek Bolgar, a Hungarian historian and diplomat, and Elza Stern, a reporter who was one of the few women to cover World War I.[3] Elek and Elza were communists and they cancelled her ninth birthday so they could take part in a civil uprising in Hungary.[3]
At age 14, Bolgar became a vegetarian.[2]
Career in Vienna
Bolgar studied at the University of Vienna.[3] She studied under Charlotte Bühler and earned her doctorate in 1934.[4] She knew Anna Freud and attended Sigmund Freud’s lectures.[5]
In the mid-1930s, Bolgar developed the “Little World Test” (also known as the “Bolgar—Fischer World Test”) with her close friend Liselotte Fischer.[6] It was a nonverbal, cross-cultural test similar to the Rorshach Ink Blot Test or the Thematic Apperception Test.[6]
When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Bolgar fled Vienna.[3]
Career in the United States
After arriving in the US, Bolger trained at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute and taught at the University of Chicago.[3] While in the Midwest, Bolger gave training on the “Little World Test."[6]
Bolgar was chief of psychology at Mt. Sinai Hospital (now Cedars-Sinai Medical Center). She helped found the California School of Professional Psychology, the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies and the Wright Institute Los Angeles, a postgraduate training center and clinic.[3]
When Bolgar was 95, she helped organize a three-day conference called "The Uprooted Mind: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Living in an Unsafe World."[3]
In 2012, at the age of 102, Bolger was still seeing patients four days a week.[2]
At 102, she gave a lecture on "Dogma and Flexibility in Psychoanalytic Technique" before the New Center for Psychoanalysis, a Los Angeles group that offers advanced education to therapists.[3]
Personal life
Bolgar's husband, economist Herbert Bekker, joined her in the U.S. in 1940 and the two moved to Los Angeles in 1956.[3] The couple had no children.[3] Bekker died in 1973.[3]
Bolgar died on May 13, 2013, at the age of 103.[7] When she died, she was likely the oldest active member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and probably the oldest practicing psychoanalyst in the United States.[7]
Quotes
- "I've lived through revolutions, famine, war. Things like that."
- "There was a war, and I had vanilla ice cream for lunch."
- "I started a lot of things at 65." [8]
- "The day the Nazis came to Vienna, I left. I had been very active in anti-Nazi politics and it really wasn't safe for me to stay. They came in on a Sunday and I decided Sunday was a good time to leave because on Monday they'd start working. They'd probably find the person who wrote those terrible articles about them pretty quickly."[9]
- "Women must be agents of their own lives. They must not be dependent on someone else to provide for them."[10]
See also
References
- ↑ "Hedda Bolgar". Psychology's Feminist Voices. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
- 1 2 3 "At age 102, this therapist is still psyched". TODAY.com. 2011-11-14. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Chawkins, Steve (2013-05-18). "Hedda Bolgar dies at 103; renowned psychoanalyst". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
- ↑ Ash, Mitchell G.; Söllner, Alfons (2002-06-06). Forced Migration and Scientific Change: Emigré German-Speaking Scientists and Scholars After 1933. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521522786.
- ↑ Publisher, Michael Sigman Writer/Editor; Music (2013-05-15). "Hedda Bolgar, Pioneering Psychoanalyst, Dies at 103". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
- 1 2 3 Friedman, Harriet S.; Mitchell, Rie Rogers (2002-01-04). Sandplay: Past, Present and Future. Routledge. ISBN 9781134853830.
- 1 2 "PsycNET - Option to Buy". psycnet.apa.org. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
- ↑ Lopez, Steve (September 14, 2008). "At 99, She's Living Life for Others". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
- ↑ Peri, Camille (undated). "A 99-Year-Old Psychoanalyst Talks About Why the Last Three Decades Have Been Some of the Best Years of Her Life". Caring.com. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
- ↑ "America's Outstanding Oldest Workers – 2011: Hedda Bolgar". Experience Works. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
External links
- "The Beauty of Aging - Hedda Bolgar".
- Video and tribute to Hedda Bolgar
- Hedda Bolgar Psychotherapy Clinic, Wright Institute Los Angeles