Rudolf Allers (13 January 1883, Vienna, Austria-Hungary - 14 December 1963,

Hyattsville, Maryland Hyattsville is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and also a close, urban suburb of Washington, D.C. The population was 21,187 at the 2020 United States Census. History Before Europeans reached the area, the upper An ...

, USA) was an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

who was a member of the first group of the founder of

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 ...

, Sigmund Freud.

Life and career

Rudolf Allers was born to doctor Mark Abeles (1837-1894, originally of Jewish extraction) and Auguste Grailich (1858-1916, daughter of Wilhelm Josef Grailich and Carolina Augusta von Ettingshausen). In 1908, he married Carola Meitner (a sister of

Lise Meitner Elise Meitner ( , ; 7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968) was an Austrian-Swedish physicist who was one of those responsible for the discovery of the element protactinium and nuclear fission. While working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute on rad ...

). Allers was the only

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

to join the first group of the founder of psychoanalysis

Sigmund 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 psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

. Together with

Alfred Adler Alfred Adler ( , ; 7 February 1870 – 28 May 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of belonging, family constellation and birth order ...

, he later distanced himself from

as understood by Freud and his followers. He was later detached from the group of Adler in 1927. He taught at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

(1919). Allers was master of

Viktor Frankl Viktor Emil Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997) was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is part ...

in 1925–1930, mentor of

Hans Urs von Balthasar Hans Urs von Balthasar (12 August 1905 – 26 June 1988) was a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest who is considered an important Catholic theologian of the 20th century. He was announced as his choice to become a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, ...

and friend of Saint

Edith Stein Edith Stein (religious name Saint Teresia Benedicta a Cruce ; also known as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross or Saint Edith Stein; 12 October 1891 – 9 August 1942) was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity and became a ...

. Both von Balthasar and Stein lived for several months in Allers' home in Vienna in 1931. He studied the preventive method of St. John Bosco and his

pedagogical Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and Developmental psychology, psychological development of le ...

applications, and at the invitation of Father

Agostino Gemelli Agostino Gemelli (18 January 1878 – 15 July 1959) was an Italian Franciscan friar, physician and psychologist, who was also the founder and first Rector of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart) of Mi ...

, was in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

to study the philosophy of

St. Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known ...

at the

Catholic University of Milan The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a p ...

and graduated in Philosophy in 1934. With the annexation of Austria to the Third Reich, Allers emigrated to the United States, where he taught at the

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

in Washington D.C. (1938 - 1948), then as professor of philosophy at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

from 1948 until his death in 1963. Allers is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

He was a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1958.

Books

Work and Play. Collected Papers on the Philosophy of Psychology (1938-1963). Edited by Alexander Batthyány, Jorge Olaechea Catter, Andrew Tallon. Marquette University Press, 2009. Self Improvement. Benziger Brothers, Inc., 1939. Republished by Kessinger Publishing, New York, 2010. The Improvement of the Self. Cluny Media LLC, 2019. Republication of Self Improvement published by Benziger Brothers in 1939. What's Wrong With Freud? A Critical Study of Freudian Psychoanalysis. Roman Catholic Books, US., 1941 The Successful Error: A Critique of Freudian Psychoanalysis. Sheed & Ward Inc, 1940. Republished by Cluny Media LLC, 2019 Forming Character in Adolescents. 1940, Reprinted by Roman Catholic Books in 2006. Sex Psychology. Published by Roman Catholic Books. Über Schadelschusse: Probleme Der Klinik und Der Fursorge In Louis Jugnet : ''Un psychiatre-philosophe, Rudolf Allers ou l’Anti-Freud'', Paris, Cèdre, 1950. ''Rudolf Allers o el Anti-Freud'', Madrid : Speiro, 1974. Puis éd. ESR, 2002, puis éd. de Chiré, 2021.

External links

* Birth record: https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/oesterreich/wien/09-votivkirche/01-02/?pg=6 * https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/c5227692-16d0-43f4-aedc-618c097f6fe8 * https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1n2txnx.14 * https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31025345 * In Spanish: http://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/9115/cat/432/rudolf-allers-psicologo-catolico.html#modal * In Italian: http://psicologiacattolicesimo.blogspot.com/2014/04/la-conoscenza-intellettiva-dei.html#more

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allers, Rudolf Austrian psychiatrists 1883 births 1963 deaths 19th-century Australian medical doctors Austrian Roman Catholics Academics of the University of Vienna Catholic University of America faculty Georgetown University faculty Presidents of the Metaphysical Society of America