Erna Furman (born Erna Mary Popper June 14, 1926 – August 9, 2002) was an Austrian-born American child psychoanalyst, psychologist, and teacher.

Biography

Furman was born Erna Mary Popper in

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

to a Jewish family. She was educated at the Academy of Commerce in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. As a little girl she had been to

Montessori The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...

nursery school in Vienna. In 1938, when she was twelve years old,

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

annexed Austria. Her family, having Czech citizenship, fled to

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

to escape the Nazis. This move provided only temporary safety. In spring 1939 her father left for Belgium and England. They were to meet again only at the end of the summer of 1946. In October 1942, Furman and her mother were sent to the

Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...

, near Prague. Her aunts and grandmother would later be sent to the same concentration camp. While there, she was twice put on the list for transportation to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

. Both times she managed to have her name to be removed from that list. In January 1943, she asked the Jewish Elder to take her out of the transport. Edelstein took her out of the transport because her mother had died that morning and she'd acquired a different status due to her mother's death. She came to Theresienstadt from Prague in October 1942, and left in May 1945 (when the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

liberated it), from age 16 to almost 19 years, and worked the entire time as 'Betreuerin' (caregiver) in a children's home, L 318. L 318 was one of the orphan houses in the ghetto. Later in 1945 in Olesovice - in the Premysl Pitter, Children's Rehabilitation Center, situated in a castle of baron von Ringhoffer not far from Prague - she was a tutor for a group of children who survived Terezin and other camps. In 1945

Anna Freud Anna Freud (3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was a British psychoanalyst of Austrian-Jewish descent. She was born in Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her father and contribu ...

took a small group of Terezin children to England, they were taken care of under Anna Freud's supervision. Some of the children's recollections were published with their permission. Anna Freud has written an article about them, and Gyömrői has written an analysis of one of the children survivors. At that time Anna Freud often called Erna Furman to ask her about things that came up with the children from camp, hoping that Erna could clarify them. Erna Furman's Terezin drawings were demonstrated at the

Friedl Dicker-Brandeis Frederika "Friedl" Dicker-Brandeis (30 July 1898, in Vienna – 9 October 1944, in Auschwitz-Birkenau), was an Austrian artist and educator murdered by the Nazis in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Biography Frederika Dicker was born in ...

's exhibit series in Japan in April–October 2002. They were included in the exhibit and on display for the first time, the drawings and diaries of Erna Furman, "a survivor of Terezin and pupil of Friedl." Her materials were taken in a special corner of the exhibition, called 'Erna's Room'. She and Friedl Dicker-Brandeis had been close friends when they were both interned in the ghetto of Terezin during the Second World War. A graduate of the Child Therapy Training Program offered by

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Erna Furman was a child psychoanalyst, a licensed psychologist, and a teacher. She emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

with the help of Anny Katan-Rosenberg in the 1950s. She married Robert Furman, had two daughters, Lydia and Tanya, and lived in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

with her husband. Both were prominent and respected

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: + . is a set of Theory, theories and Therapy, 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 bo ...

s. Erna Furman specialized in children and how children process grief. Of particular importance was her evidence that children as young as three essentially process grief no differently from adults and her insistence that children not be misled or deceived when a parent dies. She wrote:

In all bereavement, it is extraordinarily important that all of the realities of the death be known and appreciated by the survivor, particularly the cause of the death.

She practiced at the Hanna Perkins Center for Child Development and also saw patients in her Cleveland Heights home. She was a prolific writer; over the years she received extensive accolades for her contributions to

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 ...

. She was made an honorary member of the

American Psychoanalytic Association The American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) is an association of psychoanalysts in the United States. APsaA serves as a scientific and professional organization with a focus on education, research, and membership development. APsaA comprises 3 ...

in 1999. Erna Furman and her husband Robert both died in 2002, one month apart. Erna Furman died on August 9 (aged 76) and Robert Furman died on September 21.

Quotes by Erna Furman

Documentary

One Day With Erna Furman - December 1, 2001
Video

Published work

*''A Child's Parent Dies. Studies in Childhood Bereavement'' (1974) *''What Nursery School Teachers Ask Us About: Psychoanalytic Consultations in Preschools'' (''Emotions and Behavior Monographs'') (1986) *''The teacher's guide to Helping young children grow: The Teacher's Manual'' (1987) *''Helping Young Children Grow: I Never Knew Parents Did So Much'' (1988) *''Toddlers and Their Mothers: A Study in Early Personality Development'' (1992) *''Toddlers and Their Mothers: Abridged Version for Parents and Educators'' (1993) *''Preschoolers: Questions and Answers: Psychoanalytic Consultations With Parents, Teachers, and Caregivers'' (1995) *''Needs, Urges and Feelings in Early Childhood: Helping Young Children Grow'' (1997) *''Relationships in Early Childhood: Helping Young Children Grow'' (1998) *''Self-Control and Mastery in Early Childhood: Helping Young Children Grow'' (1998) *''On Being and Having a Mother'' (2001), a collection of papers written by Erna Furman collecting her various papers on mothering into one volume.Book Review by Kerrie Shrewsbury, M.D.
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References

External links

In Memory of Erna Furman
– Psychoanalysis in Cleveland, September 2002 (P. 6 from 12)

– The New York Times, Published: September 30, 2002 * ttp://pitter.eu/en/pitters-children Pitter´s children- Archive of Premysl Pitter and Olga Fierz {{DEFAULTSORT:Furman, Erna Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United States after the Anschluss American women psychologists 20th-century American psychologists Jewish scientists Freudians Psychoanalysts from Vienna Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors People from Prague in health professions People from Cleveland 1926 births 2002 deaths Jewish women scientists Jewish psychoanalysts