Angela Rohr (1890-1985). A psychoanalyst in Stalin’s Gulags

Journal title PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE
Author/s Cesare Romano
Publishing Year 2025 Issue 2025/1
Language Italian Pages 28 P. 63-90 File size 628 KB
DOI 10.3280/PU2025-001006
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The almost unknown psychoanalyst Angela Rohr studied Medicine and afterwards followed a psychoanalytic training with Karl Abraham at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. Then she moved with her husband, Wilhelm Rohr, to Soviet Union, where she became a journalist for the German daily newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung for ten years. After the invasion of the URSS by the Nazis, in the 1941 she and her husband where arrested and she was accused of espionage. She was imprisoned for five years in a Gulag, and then condemned to perpetual exile that lasted for another eleven years. In the meanwhile, she worked as a physician in the Gulag and saved some prisoners with her medical knowledge. She was released only after Stalin’s death and rehabilitated a few years later. She succeeded in surviving thanks to her medical education and psychoanalytical training, that allowed her to keep undamaged her self. She and her husband were members of the Russian Psychoanalytic Society from the foundation until 1937, and both made lectures on psychoanalytic topics. Angela Rohr lived until 95 years, without seeing published her main work, a detailed record of his life in the Gulag, that was published in 1989, four years after her death. Some information on the Gulag organization and its difference from the Nazi lager and work camps are also provided, as well as a quick picture of the first pioneers of Russian psychoanalysis.

Keywords: Angela Rohr; Rainer Marie Rilke; Expressionism; Russian Psychoanalytic Society; Gulag’s Memories

  1. Etkind A. (2009). A parable of misrecognition: Anagnorisis and the return of the repressed from the Gulag. The Russian Review, 68, 4: 623-640. DOI: 10.2307/20621112
  2. Adler N. (1999). Life in the “Big Zone”: The fate of returnees in the aftermath of Stalinist repression. Europe-Asia Studies, 51, 1: 5-19. DOI: 10.1080/09668139999092
  3. Andreas Salomé Lou (1992). Rußland mit Rainer. (trad. it.: In Russia con Rainer. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1994).
  4. Angelini A. (1988). La psicoanalisi in Russia. Napoli: Liguori.
  5. Ataria Y. (2019). Becoming Nonhuman: The case study of the Gulag. Genealogy, 3, 27: 1-13.
  6. Ataria Y. (2020). Investigating the origin of body-disownership: The case study of the Gulag. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 51, 1: 44-82. DOI: 10.1163/15691624-12341370
  7. Anonimo (1989). Ein Neuer Verlag. Burgerländische Freiheit, 15 novembre 1989, p. 50: https:// anno.onb.ac.at/anno-suche/simple?query=Helene%20Golnipa&from=1.
  8. Barenberg A. & Johnson D.E. (2022). Rethinking the Gulag. Identities, Sourcers, Legacies. Indiana, IN: Indiana University Press.
  9. Barnes S.A. (2000). Researching daily life in the Gulag. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 1, 2: 377-390.
  10. Barnett V. (2006). Understanding Stalinism: The “Orvellian Discrepancy” and the “Rational Choice Dictator”. Europe-Asia Studies, 58, 3: 457-466. DOI: 10.1080/09668130600601982
  11. Bergmann M.S. (2005). The psychoanalytic wars of yesterday (Review of: Otto Fenichel, 119 Rundbriefe. One Hundred Nineteen Circular Letters, 1934-1945. Two Volumes. Edited by Johannes Reichmayr & Else Mühlleitner. Frankfurt a.M.: Stroemfeld Publications, 1998). Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 53, 2: 663-672. DOI: 10.1177/00030651050530020501
  12. Bey G. (2009). Nachwort zu: Rohr, 1914-60 (2010), pp. 255-288.
  13. Bey G. (2011). Geheimnisse, die »wie große Katzen« durch die Menschen laufen. Die Schriftstellerin und Ärztin Angela Rohr – Zeitzeugin des 20. Jahrhunderts und der Psychoanalyse. Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse, 63: 157-179.
  14. Bey G. (2015). Nachwort zu: Rohr A., Lager. Ein autobiographischer Roman. Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 2015 (vedi Golnipa [Rohr], 1989) (trad. it.: Scoperta di un romanzo. In: Rohr A., Lager. Romanzo autobiografico. A cura e con una postfazione di Gesine Bey. Milano: La Tartaruga, 2019, pp. 289-348).
  15. Bohleber W. (2010). Psychoanalytic Diagnosis. The Identity Crisis of Modern Psychoanalysis. London: Karnac (trad. it.: Identità, trauma e ideologia. Roma: Astrolabio, 2012).
  16. Brotbeck R. (2022). Töne und Schälle. Robert Walser-Vertonungen 1912 bis 2021. Padeborn, D: Brill/Fink Verlag.
  17. Editors (2015). What was the Gulag? Kritika. Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 16, 3: 469-475.
  18. Etkind A. (1993). Eros dell’impossibile. Storia della psicoanalisi in Russia. Pisa: ETS, 2020. (edizione russa del 1993 e 2016. L’edizione italiana è basata sulla seconda edizione russa).
  19. Etkind A. (1994). How psychoanalysis was received in Russia, 1906-1936. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 39, 2: 191-202.
  20. Freud A. (1929). Korrespondenzblatt der Internationalen Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 15, 23: 362-392.
  21. Freud A. (1930). Korrespondenzblatt der Internationalen Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 16, 34: 525-560.
  22. Freud A. (1931). Korrespondenzblatt der Internationalen Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 17, 4: 552-564.
  23. Freud A. (1933). Korrespondenzblatt der Internationalen Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 19, 12: 239-299.
  24. Freud A. (1934). Korrespondenzblatt der Internationalen Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 20, 1: 125-149.
  25. Freud S. (1899 [1900]). L’interpretazione dei sogni. Opere, 3. Torino: Boringhieri, 1966.
  26. Freud S. (1912-13). Totem e tabù. Opere, 7: 3-164. Torino: Boringhieri, 1975.
  27. Freud S. (1914 [1918]). Dalla storia di una nevrosi infantile (Caso clinico dell’Uomo dei lupi). Opere, 7: 483-593. Torino: Boringhieri, 1975.
  28. Freud S. (1919). Prefazione a “Il rito religioso: studi psicoanalitici” di Theodor Reich, Opere, 9: 123-127. Torino: Boringhieri, 1977.
  29. Freud S. (1921). Prefazione a “La psicologia dei sogni a occhi aperti” di J. Varendonck. Opere, 9: 338-339. Torino: Boringhieri, 1977.
  30. Freud S. & Abraham K (1907-26). Briefe 1907-1926. Frankfurt a.M.: Fisher, 1965 (trad. inglese: The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Karl Abraham, 1907-1925. Edited by Ernst Falzeder. London: Karnac, 2018; trad. it.: Lettere: 1907-1925. Roma: Alpes, 2024).
  31. Geyer M. & Fitzpatrick S. (2009). Beyond Totalitarianism. Stalinism and Nazism Compared. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  32. Glover E. (1936). Korrespondenzblatt der Internationalen Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 22, 1: 104-136.
  33. Glover E. (1937). Korrespondenzblatt der Internationalen Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 23, 4: 581-596.
  34. Golnipa [Rohr] H. (1989). Im angesicht der Todesangel Stalin. A cura di Isabella Ackerl. Mattersburg-Katzelsdorf bei Wien: Tau (trad. russa: Angelina Ror, Kholodnye zvezdy GULAGa [Le fredde stelle del Gulag]. Mosca: Svenja-Memorial, 2006; nuova trad. tedesca. Lager. Ein autobiographischer Roman. Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 2015; trad. francese: L’exil éternel. J’étais médecin au Goulag. Paris: Les Arènes, 2019; trad. it.: Lager. Romanzo autobiografico. A cura e con una postfazione di Gesine Bey. Milano: La Tartaruga, 2019).
  35. Hamant Y. (2020). La jeune femme de la gare de Zurich en 1917… Commentaire, 1, 169: 208-210.
  36. Herzog D. (2016). Cold War Freud. Psychoanalysis in an Age of Catastrophes. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (trad. it. di una versione abbreviata del cap. 1: Le “guerre fredde” freudiane: cristianizzazione e desessualizzazione della psicoanalisi negli Stati Uniti del dopoguerra. Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, 2017, 51, 1: 25-60.
  37. Hubermann [Rohr] A. (1922). “J. Varendonck, Über das Vorbewußte phantasierende Denken. Internationale Psychoanalytische Bibliothek, Bd. XI, Leipzig, Wien, Zürich, 1922”. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 8, 3: 358-362.
  38. Kaës R. (2012). Le Malêtre. Paris: Dunod. 2012 (trad. it.: Il malessere. Roma: Borla, 2013).
  39. Keith-Smith B. (1998). Recensione a: “Hartmut Vollmer, Die rote Perücke: Prosa expressionistischer Dichterinnen. Padeborn, D: Igel Verlag, 1996”. The Modern Language Review, 93, 3: 891 (www.jstor.org/stable/3736606).
  40. Kershaw I. & Lewin M. (1997). Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorship in Comparison. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  41. Köpf G. (2017). Acht Namen in Einen Leben. Die Ärztin und Schriftstellerin Angela Rohr. Neurotrasmitter, 28, 1: 50-53.
  42. Kuromiya H. (2007). Stalin and his era. The Historical Journal, 50, 3: 711-724. DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X07006322
  43. Laub D. & Auerhahn N. (1989). Failed empathy – A central theme in the survivor’s holocaust experience. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 6, 4: 377-400. DOI: 10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.377
  44. Lummert G. (2021). “Radio speaks to us”. Kollettive Einstimmuing auf die zeitlose Revolution in Angela Rohr Moskauer Demonstration im Radio: https://doi.org/10.18452/23966.
  45. Mandel’štam O. (1908-37). Ottanta poesie. A cura di Remo Faccani. Torino: Einaudi, 2009.
  46. Miller M. (1986). The origins and development of Russian psychoanalysis, 1909-1930. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, 14, 1: 125-135.
  47. Miller M. A. (1998). Freud and the Bolsheviks. Psychoanalysis in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
  48. Nacu A. & Bolea Z. (2018). The unelaborated trauma of deportations. Romanian Journal of Psychoanalysis, 11, 1: 51-64.
  49. Prampolini A. (2017). Gulag sovietici e lager nazisti. Sitografia per una comparazione. Novecento.org, 7.
  50. Recchia Luciani F.R. (2017). Immaginario genocidiario. Lager e Gulag nella “cultura della rappresentazione”. Novecento.org, 7.
  51. Reik Th. (1931). Ritual. Psychoanalytic Studies. New York: Norton (trad. it.: Il rito religioso: studi psicoanalitici. Torino: Einaudi, 1949; Torino: Boringhieri, 1969; Milano: Ghibli, 2017).
  52. Rohr A. (1914-60 [2010]). Der Vogel. Gesammelte Erzählungen und Reportagen. Herausgegeben von Gesine Bey. Berlin: BasisDruch Verlag, 2010.
  53. Rousso H. (1999). Stalinism and Nazism: History and Memory Compared. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2004 (Ed. orig. francese: Stalinisme et nazisme: Histoire et mémoire comparées. Bruxelles: Éditions Complexe, 1999).
  54. Schnack I. (1992). Wer war Angela Guttmann? Zu Rilkes Winter in Locarno 1919/20. In: Steiner J., Rainer Maria Rilke und die Schweiz. Zürich: Offizin Strauhof, 1992, pp. 109-122.
  55. Thompson N. (1987). Early women psychoanalysts. International Review of Psychoanalysis, 14, 3: 391-406.
  56. Ulmi R. (2002). Rainer Maria Rilke a Locarno, 7 dicembre 1919-27 febbraio 1920: cronaca ricostruita sulla base dell’epistolario del poeta. Bollettino della Società storica locarnese, 5: 59-81 DOI: 10.5169/seals-1034211
  57. Viola L. (2007). The Unknown Gulag. The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
  58. Viola L. (2013). The question of the perpetrator in Soviet history. Slavic Review, 72, 1: 1-23.
  59. Wheatcroft S. (1996). The scale and nature of German and Soviet repression and mass killings, 1930-45. Europe-Asia Studies, 48, 8: 1319-1353.
  60. Zalambani M. & Kadis L., a cura di (2024). Tatiana Rosenthal. Pioniera della psicoanalisi russa. Pisa: ETS.

Cesare Romano, Angela Rohr (1890-1985). Una psicoanalista nei Gulag di Stalin in "PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE" 1/2025, pp 63-90, DOI: 10.3280/PU2025-001006