24 Facts About Elisabeth Geleerd

Elisabeth Rozetta Geleerd Loewenstein was a Dutch-American psychoanalyst.

Elisabeth Geleerd specialized in the psychoanalysis of psychosis, including schizophrenia, and was an influential writer on psychoanalysis in childhood schizophrenia.

Elisabeth Geleerd was one of the first writers to consider the concept of borderline personality disorder in childhood.

Elisabeth Geleerd was married to fellow psychoanalyst Rudolph Loewenstein from 1946 until her death; they had one child.

Elisabeth Geleerd developed a reputation as a particularly skilled and empathetic clinician, described as having a "sensitive, searching, and romantic" temperament; she was regarded as an independent thinker who would present her ideas forcefully even when their topics were sensitive enough for other psychoanalysts to avoid.

Elisabeth Rozetta Geleerd was born on March 20,1909, in Rotterdam in an ethnically Jewish atheist family as the eldest of three children to Moses, a ship chandler, and Bertha.

Elisabeth Geleerd's father was a wealthy entrepreneur, and Geleerd grew up in an upper-middle-class background.

Elisabeth Geleerd's father was distant and frequently engrossed in his work, although he supported his daughter's later ambitions to become a physician.

Elisabeth Geleerd then went to Vienna to study psychoanalysis under Anna Freud.

Elisabeth Geleerd's studies were disrupted in 1938 by the rising Nazi presence in Austria, and she moved to London to complete her training.

Elisabeth Geleerd had a complex relationship with the Netherlands, finding it culturally stifling and feeling a stranger in her own home.

Elisabeth Geleerd continued her studies under Anna Freud in London, becoming one of her more prominent students; Elisabeth Geleerd was recognized for her independent thought and interpersonal style, "forcefully and capably" presenting her ideas even if the topics were deemed too sensitive or awkward to discuss by her peers.

In 1940, Elisabeth Geleerd moved to the United States, a move encouraged by friends already resident in the country.

Elisabeth Geleerd first settled in Topeka, Kansas, where she worked at Karl Menninger's Clinic throughout the first half of the 1940s.

In 1946, Elisabeth Geleerd relocated to New York City and married fellow psychoanalyst Rudolph Loewenstein; they had one son, the psychiatrist Richard Loewenstein.

Elisabeth Geleerd was appointed a training analyst at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1947, playing a pivotal role in the development of the institute's child and adolescent psychoanalytic programs; in 1955, she became a member of the Institute's Educational Committee.

Elisabeth Geleerd felt out of place at Mount Sinai and left the role earlier than expected.

Elisabeth Geleerd took particular interest in the psychoanalysis of childhood schizophrenia, at the time a popular diagnosis; much of what was deemed childhood schizophrenia in Geleerd's day is classified as autism spectrum disorders.

In 1946, Elisabeth Geleerd published a paper on children with behavioral issues, who she considered to be likely to develop schizophrenia, saying that the behavioral issues were themselves signs of psychosis.

Elisabeth Geleerd was one of the first psychoanalysts to consider the possibility of borderline personality disorder in children.

Elisabeth Geleerd's research was expanded on in the 1960s by Sara Kut Rosenfeld, a member of the first cohort of students of the Anna Freud Centre, and in the 1970s by Fred Pine, director of child psychiatry at the Jacobi Medical Center and later professor of psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Elisabeth Geleerd was particularly interested in the potential importance of regression to normal adolescent development, an idea proposed by Jean Piaget.

Elisabeth Geleerd died in New York City on May 25,1969, at the age of 60, less than a month after presenting a panel at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

Elisabeth Geleerd predeceased her husband, who died in 1976, and her teacher Anna Freud.