Hedda Bolgar

Hedda Bolgar
Born (1909-08-19)August 19, 1909
Switzerland
Died May 13, 2013(2013-05-13) (aged 103)
Alma mater PhD, University of Vienna, 1934, Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute
Occupation Psychoanalyst
Employer Mt. Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies, The Wright Institute of Los Angeles, (1970-), Hedda Bolgar Psychotherapy Clinic, (1974-)
Spouse(s) Herbert Bekker
Parent(s) Elek Bolgar, Elza Stern

Hedda Bolgar (August 19, 1909 – May 13, 2013) was a psychoanalyst in Los Angeles, California, who maintained an active practice when she was over 100 years old.[1] She saw patients four days a week at age 102.[2]

Early life

Bolgar was born in Zurich, Switzerland, on August 19, 1909. She was the only child of Elek Bolgar, a Hungarian historian and diplomat, and Elza Stern, a reporter who was one of the few women to cover World War I.[3] Elek and Elza were communists and they cancelled her ninth birthday so they could take part in a civil uprising in Hungary.[3]

At age 14, Bolgar became a vegetarian.[2]

Career in Vienna

Bolgar studied at the University of Vienna.[3] She studied under Charlotte Bühler and earned her doctorate in 1934.[4] She knew Anna Freud and attended Sigmund Freud’s lectures.[5]

In the mid-1930s, Bolgar developed the “Little World Test” (also known as the “Bolgar—Fischer World Test”) with her close friend Liselotte Fischer.[6] It was a nonverbal, cross-cultural test similar to the Rorshach Ink Blot Test or the Thematic Apperception Test.[6]

When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Bolgar fled Vienna.[3]

Career in the United States

After arriving in the US, Bolger trained at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute and taught at the University of Chicago.[3] While in the Midwest, Bolger gave training on the “Little World Test."[6]

Bolgar was chief of psychology at Mt. Sinai Hospital (now Cedars-Sinai Medical Center). She helped found the California School of Professional Psychology, the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies and the Wright Institute Los Angeles, a postgraduate training center and clinic.[3]

When Bolgar was 95, she helped organize a three-day conference called "The Uprooted Mind: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Living in an Unsafe World."[3]

In 2012, at the age of 102, Bolger was still seeing patients four days a week.[2]

At 102, she gave a lecture on "Dogma and Flexibility in Psychoanalytic Technique" before the New Center for Psychoanalysis, a Los Angeles group that offers advanced education to therapists.[3]

Personal life

Bolgar's husband, economist Herbert Bekker, joined her in the U.S. in 1940 and the two moved to Los Angeles in 1956.[3] The couple had no children.[3] Bekker died in 1973.[3]

Bolgar died on May 13, 2013, at the age of 103.[7] When she died, she was likely the oldest active member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and probably the oldest practicing psychoanalyst in the United States.[7]

Quotes

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Hedda Bolgar". Psychology's Feminist Voices. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "At age 102, this therapist is still psyched". TODAY.com. 2011-11-14. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Chawkins, Steve (2013-05-18). "Hedda Bolgar dies at 103; renowned psychoanalyst". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  4. ↑ Ash, Mitchell G.; Söllner, Alfons (2002-06-06). Forced Migration and Scientific Change: Emigré German-Speaking Scientists and Scholars After 1933. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521522786.
  5. ↑ Publisher, Michael Sigman Writer/Editor; Music (2013-05-15). "Hedda Bolgar, Pioneering Psychoanalyst, Dies at 103". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  6. 1 2 3 Friedman, Harriet S.; Mitchell, Rie Rogers (2002-01-04). Sandplay: Past, Present and Future. Routledge. ISBN 9781134853830.
  7. 1 2 "PsycNET - Option to Buy". psycnet.apa.org. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  8. ↑ Lopez, Steve (September 14, 2008). "At 99, She's Living Life for Others". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  9. ↑ Peri, Camille (undated). "A 99-Year-Old Psychoanalyst Talks About Why the Last Three Decades Have Been Some of the Best Years of Her Life". Caring.com. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  10. ↑ "America's Outstanding Oldest Workers – 2011: Hedda Bolgar". Experience Works. Retrieved May 19, 2013.

External links

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