Many prominent and important women who work in and around science are not attributed the credit they deserve for their work, and that fact remains true when you take a broader look into the past few centuries. Marie Curie is the usual name to throw around for a lack of credit in her time, but she is only one amongst the many who were denied the acclaim they deserved, most of whom still lack any form of recognition.
So we did some research and wrote a Wikipedia Article for her, and furthermore wrote a Biography that let us include the juicy details that the stringent nature of Wikipedia did not permit mentioning. (The reason for writing a Wiki article was that the relative representation of men and women in the sciences is heavily favoring men, and often the achievements of women when presented are deemed insufficiently important for their inclusion. That, however, is a subjective claim that proposes two interpretations: either women contributed nearly nothing worthwhile to science over the past few centuries with notable exception, or there's a consistent, occasionally unconscious, bias to devalue the work of women. As any shallow delve into history will tell you, the problem is not a lack of women doing worthwhile work.)
The notable figure that we (I worked with another student on the Wiki-article) chose was Grete L. Bibring, a woman who was a contemporary of Dr. Freud who fled the Nazis during the second World War and was friends with a Princess (Marie Bonaparte.) That there had not already been an article on her was a travesty I'm glad to have been able to help in undoing.
I hope you enjoy a brief delve into an interesting person's life, and that it serves as a reminder that there have always existed interesting, influential people from the marginalized communities, you just have to take a closer look to see them (and maybe help bring their story to light now that we live in an age where information is readily available and shareable.)
Have yourself a lovely day, enjoy this piece, and see you Monday for something else!
(References at the end of the piece, or get the originally formatted file here.)
Grete Lehner Bibring (a Biography) by Mac Clevinger
Grete Lehner Bibring, born Lehner, was an Austrian psychoanalyst in the early-to-mid 1900’s who contributed greatly to the field she studied, holding numerous esteemed positions and publishing many papers during a career that would stretch from Austria to America as the Nazi invasion of her homeland forced her to flee Europe. In transit with Anna and Sigmund Freud, her family stopped first at England before continuing to America where, some years later, she would become not just the first female full professor at Harvard Medical School, but also the President of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society, the Vice President of the International Psychoanalytic Society, the President of the American Psychoanalytic Society, both Director of Psychiatric Research and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Beth Israel Hospital, and elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (SNAC). It is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that Grete would find herself working to treat patients of their ailments up until a few weeks before she passed away in 1977 (Revolvy), after nearly forty years of not just performing her work and research to further the theory and practices of psychoanalysis but being a cornerstone of the field and the organizations that grew up around it (WGBH).
Born on January 11, 1899 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, Grete Lehner was the youngest of four children (Murphy, Jessica) born to parents that had done well for themselves in business, belonging to a class of ‘Jewish intellectual bourgeoisie’ (Encyclopedia.com). While non-practicing religiously, the family was very involved with the society around them, hosting many dinner parties that would leave an imprint on a young Grete. The wealth brought on from her family’s business – her father owning a factory – gave her an appreciation for music, science, and the arts, interests that she would carry with her as her education began at the girls’ school ‘Akademisches Gymnasium’, or the ‘Humanistic Gymnasium for Girls’. She excelled at Greek and Latin, but more importantly became familiar with the works of Sigmund Freud, which served to greatly inspire her later career (Revolvy).
Further influence would come from Freud himself, or perhaps through him, as now that Grete Lehner was a member of Freud’s Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, she came upon a man of the name Edward Bibring who shared many of the same professional interests that Grete herself held. First meeting as partners in a dissection lab (Revolvy), these two members of Freud’s Society would begin a long career together as both colleagues who made themselves key members of the “second generation” of psychoanalysts who established many of the fundamental theories and practices of psychiatry as we know it today, and as husband and wife, being wed in the December of 1921 (cfmedicine).
Grete Lehner Bibring graduated from the University of Vienna in 1924, specializing in neurology and psychiatry at the Vienna Training Institute in 1925. She went on to work at the psychoanalytic clinic, sharing her findings on the techniques of therapy, and published the first of her numerous works on psychoanalysis: ‘The Phallic Phase and its Disturbances in Young Girls’, published in 1933 for the Journal of Psychoanalytic Pedagogue. Come 1934 Grete joined the education committee of the Vienna Association, where Grete would enjoy her work, family, and relatively peaceful life for another four years (Encyclopedia.com).
Then the Nazis happened. Due to their invasion of Austria, Grete and her family fled in the company of Anna and Sigmund Freud alongside many of their colleagues to London, Great Britain, in the May of 1938 (SNAC). During their short time here, departing for the United States in 1941, Grete joined the British Psycho-Analytic Society and arranged for her siblings to join her in England. The end of their time in London would come by means of a job offer for her husband, Edward, to teach at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. His acceptance marked the end of their time in Europe, and Grete would depart with husband and two children in tow for the land where her career would flourish (Revolvy).
Despite having left her home of nearly forty years behind under the threat of Nazi occupation, Grete rapidly established herself in the new country as she accepted two positions that would bring her incredible renown, becoming the first female professor at Harvard Medical School and lecturing psychoanalytic psychology at Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston (SNAC). She was described as “a brilliant teacher” by numerous students who raced to fill the ever-growing waiting lists for her lectures (WGBH), and as “a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher, Dr. Grete Bibring had a gift for conveying complex concepts in clear and understandable terms” (WGBH).
The core idea that Grete championed was that to effectively care for a patient, a doctor had to understand that patient’s personality and psychological needs (cfmedicine). While an idea such as this may have been ignored in other times, Grete and the entire host of “second generation” psychoanalysts entered America at the perfect time for their works to take off and influence the world as opinions towards psychiatry turned favorable (WGBH).
This fertile ground served Grete well as she went well beyond the impressive role of a teacher, joining the Boston Psychoanalytic Society as both a member and a training analyst before, in 1946, joining the Beth Israel Hospital as the director of the administrative staff of their psychiatric division, during which time she reorganized the psychiatric teaching unit (SNAC). Grete ended her time as an official lecturer at Simmons College School of Social Work in 1955, filling that space in her life with numerous positions in other establishments. She took over the role of Director of Psychiatric Research and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Beth Israel Hospital that year, holding these positions until her retirement from there in 1965.
In addition, she was elected President of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute from 1955 to 1958, going on to hold the role of Vice President of the International Psychoanalytic Association from 1959 to 1963, and was the President of the American Psychoanalytic Association in 1962 (Encyclopedia.com). In amongst the duties of these numerous positions, Grete continued to perform her research and treat patients, publishing two papers on the results of a study she conducted on the psychological aspects of pregnancy in 1961 for the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child (WGBH). The significance of this kind of study is immense, as throughout history medical studies of women’s health issues were rarely conducted, yet throughout her career Grete made great efforts to levy a focus on such issues (cfmedicine).
On January 11, 1959, a tragedy struck Grete’s life as her husband, Edward, passed away due to Parkinson’s Disease (Encyclopedia.com). While this loss was a great blow to Grete, she was not alone in her struggles as the vast network of friends and colleagues she amassed during her career were present to support her. At a memorial service for her husband, Anna Freud purportedly spoke, having a great effect on Grete, a fact she reported in a letter to Princess Marie Bonaparte. As Grete grew older, her allies would remain by her side and bring comfort even as she returned the favor, evidenced by an excerpt from a letter written by Erik Erikson referencing a meeting between the two: “It was the kind of talk which goes on forever in one’s thoughts” (Murphy, Jessica).
After her retirement in 1965, Grete Bibring continued to hold special lectures at the Radcliff Institute on the development of professional women and publish papers in both journals and the books published by her colleagues (Revolvy). By the end of her career, Grete Bibring published over thirty papers, co-authored a book, The Lectures in Medical Psychiatry, in 1969, and edited the Teaching of Dynamic Psychiatry in 1968, the same year that she accepted a fellowship at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (WGBH).
In her retirement, Grete continued to treat patients and was clearly still active, if in a reserved role, in the psychoanalytical community, contributing her knowledge and expertise wherever it was needed, like at MIT where she gave a major address entitled “Freud and the Understanding of Human Nature” (WGBH). Up until two weeks before her death, Grete applied her lifetime of psychiatric experience to the betterment of her patients, passing away on August 10, 1977 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 78 (Revolvy). This marked the end of a life that had dedicated itself to understanding how the human mind worked so that one may better help treat whatever maladies befell it, and the loss that the scientific field sustained from her death remains vastly overshadowed by the contributions she made throughout her life to the medical community.
“Bibring, Grete L.”. Social Network and Archival Context (snac), http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6nw0gz1. February 23, 2018.
“Dr. Grete Lehner Bibring”. Changing the Face of Medicine (cfmedicine), June 3, 2015, https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_33.html. February 23, 2018
"Bibring-Lehner, Grete (1899-1977)." International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Encyclopedia.com. 23 Feb. 2018 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
Murphy, Jessica. Grete L. Bibring: The Modern Woman. Center for the History of Medicine, September 2013, https://collections.countway.harvard.edu/onview/exhibits/show/grete-bibring-the-modern-woman. February 23, 2018.
“The Grete L. Bibring Collection”. WGBH Open Vault, http://openvault.wgbh.org/exhibits/bibring/article. February 23, 2018.
“Grete L. Bibring”. Revolvy, https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Grete%20L.%20Bibring. February 23, 2018.