Paul Diel (11 July 1893 – 5 January 1972) was a French psychologist of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n origin who developed the method of introspective analysis and the psychology of motivation.

Life

Diel was born 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 ...

, on 11 July 1893, to a teacher of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

origin and an unknown man. He was orphaned at the age of 13 after spending 8 years in a religious orphanage, but was able to obtain his

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

with the support of a benefactor. Diel did not pursue formal higher education, but instead became an actor, novelist, and poet before teaching himself

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

. Inspired by the philosophers

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

, Kant and Spinoza, and also by the psychologists

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...

Adler Adler may refer to: Places *Adler, Alabama, an unincorporated community in Perry County *Adler Planetarium, Chicago, Illinois, USA *Adler Township, Nelson County, North Dakota, USA *Adler University, formerly Adler School of Professional Psycholo ...

and

Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...

, he delved into his own psychological research and established the basis of the introspective analysis method that helped him develop his theories of the psychology of motivation. Diel practiced psychotherapy at the central hospital of

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

, and in 1935 he sent his work on introspective analysis to

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

. Einstein greatly appreciated Diel's work and they established a correspondence that did not end until Einstein's death in 1955. In 1938, after the Nazi German ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

'' of

, Diel escaped to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and worked at the Sainte-Anne psychiatric hospital in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Unfortunately, because he was a foreign national, he became imprisoned in the

Gurs internment camp Gurs internment camp was an internment camp and prisoner of war camp constructed in 1939 in Gurs, a site in southwestern France, not far from Pau. The camp was originally set up by the French government after the fall of Catalonia at the e ...

in southern France during

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 ...

. After his release, he was able to join

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

in 1945 with the backing of Einstein and Irène Joliot-Curie. At CNRS he worked as a children's psychotherapist in Henri Wallon's laboratory. Diel continued working as a researcher and psychotherapist and had trained a group of students and published books on various subjects like

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

ism and

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

when he died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in Paris on 5 January 1972.

External links

The Association for Introspective Psychology

The Association of the Psychology of Motivation

Correspondence between Diel and Einstein in the Albert Einstein Archives at the Jewish National & University Library, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

References

*''405-2.1 Paul Diel''. (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2004, from https://web.archive.org/web/20041215113609/http://news.taovillage.com/news/site_arbos/arbo/405surquoicompter/405-2.1PaulDiel.htm. *''FirstSearch CLC - Reference'. (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2004, from http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/. *''Site of the Association for Introspective Psychoanalysis''. (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2004, from http://perso.wanadoo.fr/introspective.psychology. {{DEFAULTSORT:Diel, Paul 1893 births 1972 deaths People from Vienna in health professions French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French psychologists 20th-century French philosophers Gurs internment camp survivors 20th-century French male writers Austrian emigrants to France

Life

Further reading

Works

Co-authored works

Related works

External links

References