Edith Gyömrői Ludowyk (8 September 1896 – 11 February 1987) was a Hungarian psychotherapist,

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and communist. She was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka.

Early years

Edit (Gelb) Gyömrői was born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

to Mark Gelb (who changed his name to Gyömrői in 1899), a Jewish furniture manufacturer, and Ilona Pfeifer.A Woman against the current: Edith Ludowyk Gyomori
The Island Online She had a younger brother, Boris, and an older sister (by two years), Márta.A Woman Against the Current. The Life Paths of Edit Gyömrői (Gelb, Rényi, Glück, Ujvári, Ludowyk)
/ref> At her father's request, she began studying interior design, but later dropped out. In 1914, she married chemical engineer Ervin Renyi - with whom she had a son, Gábor, who later died in a fascist

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

- then divorced him in 1918. Through her uncle István Hollós, she began to learn about

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

and attended the 5th International Psychoanalytical Congress in

Becoming a communist militant

From 1918 onwards she participated in gatherings of the Sunday Circle, a group of left-wing intellectuals which included psychoanalyst René Spitz. In 1919, she worked for the Commissariat for Education during the short-lived

Hungarian Soviet Republic The Socialist Federative Republic of Councils in Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Szocialista Szövetséges Tanácsköztársaság) (due to an early mistranslation, it became widely known as the Hungarian Soviet Republic in English-language sources ( ...

. When the republic fell following the Romanian invasion, she fled to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, where she supported herself by working at a parachute factory, and then as a sales assistant at a bookshop. She knew the Hungarian writers

Béla Balázs Béla Balázs (; 4 August 1884 in Szeged – 17 May 1949 in Budapest), born Herbert Béla Bauer, was a Hungarian film critic, aesthetician, writer and poet of Jewish heritage. He was a proponent of formalist film theory. Career Balázs was th ...

, composer

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...

, Czech writer

Egon Kisch Egon Erwin Kisch (29 April 1885 – 31 March 1948) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak writer and journalist, who wrote in German. He styled himself ''Der Rasende Reporter'' (The Raging Reporter) for his countless travels to the far corners of the ...

and

Hermann Broch Hermann Broch (; 1 November 1886 – 30 May 1951) was an Austrian writer, best known for two major works of modernist fiction: '' The Sleepwalkers'' (''Die Schlafwandler,'' 1930–32) and '' The Death of Virgil'' (''Der Tod des Vergil,'' 1945). ...

- who translated her poetry into German. Thereafter she was for short periods in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. After being expelled from Romania for her communism, she settled in Berlin in 1923, with her second husband Laszlo Tology (Gluck). She designed costumes for the films of

Elisabeth Bergner Elisabeth Bergner (22 August 1897 – 12 May 1986) was an Austrian-British actress. Primarily a stage actress, her career flourished in Berlin and Paris before she moved to London to work in films. Her signature role was Gemma Jones in '' Esca ...

at the Neumann Produktion film studio, translated, interpreted and took photographs. She also worked on the staff of the

Rote Hilfe The Rote Hilfe ("Red Aid") was the German affiliate of the International Red Aid. The Rote Hilfe was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany and existed between 1924 and 1936. Its purpose was to provide help to those Communists who had be ...

newspaper of the

German Communist Party The German Communist Party (german: Deutsche Kommunistische Partei, ) is a communist party in Germany. The DKP supports left positions and was an observer member of the European Left. At the end of February 2016 it left the European party. His ...

for a time. She studied psychoanalysis from 1924 onwards. After undertaking training analysis with Otto Fenichel, she later practiced as an analyst. She was the therapist of the Hungarian poet Attila József, who wrote his most famous love poems to her. When

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

came to power in 1933, Gyömrői emigrated to Prague, due to her being

jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, along with her political views, which were opposed to the Nazi party ideologies. The following year she returned to Budapest, where she joined the Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society. Between 1936 and 1938, she held seminars and discussion evenings, for mothers and educators on practical educational issues.

Moving to Sri Lanka

In 1938, when

Admiral Horthy Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet ...

's fascist regime passed its first Anti-Jewish Law, she emigrated to Sri LankaDefining our modern cultural history: (VIII) Edith Ludowyk-Gyomroi
.

Sunday Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

with her third husband, journalist Laszlo Ujvári, who died in 1940. She met and married E. F. C. Ludowyk, Professor of English at the

University College, Colombo Ceylon University College was a public university college in Ceylon. Established in 1921, it was Ceylon's first attempt at university education. The college didn't award degrees under its own name but prepared students to sit the University of Lo ...

. She joined the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party and in 1947, together with

Vivienne Goonewardena Violet Vivienne Goonewardene ( si, වයලට් විවියන් ගුන්වර්ධන, ta, வயலட் விவியென் கூனவர்தன; 18 September 19163 October 1996), commonly known as "Vivi", was a Sri Lan ...

and several other women of the LSSP, the

Bolshevik Samasamaja Party The Bolshevik Samasamaja Party was the Ceylon section Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma (BLPI) after 1945 and of the Fourth International in 1948-1950, after the dissolution of the BLPI. After the war there was a split in the Lan ...

and the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

, she founded the Eksath Kantha Peramuna (United Women's Front), the first autonomous

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

women's association in the country. In 1948, she published an article in

The Times of Ceylon ''The Times of Ceylon'' was an English language daily newspaper in Sri Lanka published by Times of Ceylon Limited (TOCL). It was founded in 1846 as the ''Ceylon Times'' and was published from Colombo. It ceased publication in 1985. History The ...

titled "Feminism or Socialism?". In 1956, because the island's humid climate caused her problems, the couple moved to London. There, Gyömrői became a recognized psychoanalyst, and continued her practice until she was 80.

Death

After the death of her husband in 1986, she moved with her colleagues Anne-Marie and

Joseph J. Sandler Joseph J. Sandler (10 January 1927 – 6 October 1998) was a British psychoanalyst within the Anna Freud Grouping – now the Contemporary Freudians – of the British Psychoanalytical Society; and is perhaps best known for what has been called h ...

. She died on 11 February 1987.

Works

* ''Rényi Edit versei'' (The Poems of Edit Renyi), 1919 * ''Versohnung'' (Atonement) * ''Gegen den Strom'' (Against the Current) 1941 * ''Miracle and Faith in Early Buddhism'', 1944 * ''Pubertätsriten der Mädchen in einer in Umwandlung begriffenen Gesellschaft'' (Adolescent Rites among Girls in a Society in Flux), 1955 * ''Megbékélés'', 1979

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ludowyk, Edith Gyomroi Hungarian women psychologists Hungarian psychoanalysts Jewish psychoanalysts Hungarian communists Hungarian women poets Lanka Sama Samaja Party politicians Socialist feminists Hungarian Jews Hungarian women activists Jewish anti-racism activists European anti-racism activists 20th-century Hungarian women writers 20th-century Hungarian poets 1896 births 1987 deaths Analysands of Otto Fenichel 20th-century psychologists