Carl Muller-Braunschweig’s biography is one of those dark pages of the trajectory of psychoanalysis, it is true that he was the author of interesting books, almost all related to ethics, but he himself poses a challenge to analytical practice, mainly because he became a collaborator of Nazism during World War II.
His position has been the subject of much debate. On the one hand, some believe that psychoanalysis should never have been under the command of a manifestly perverse regime, that would be a contradiction, since that ideology is, in itself, an affront to mental health.
- “Official acceptance is an unequivocal sign that we have once again been denied salvation; Is this the clearest sign of a fatal misunderstanding and is it also Judas’ kiss?-James Agee-.
On the other hand, there are those who believe that psychoanalysis is a scientific practice, subject to the laws of epistemology, and that it is therefore above ideologies or forms of power; in this sense, it does not matter whether it is present in the Structure of a Fascist or Liberal State, the only important thing is that it respects the methodological statutes that govern it, and Carl Muller-Braunschweig shares this position.
Carl was born on April 8, 1881 in the city of Braunschweig and attached the name of this place to his, at first he was simply called Carl Muller, he was the son of a German carpenter.
At first he received extensive training in philosophy. Some of his teachers were Crock von Brockdorff, Jonas Cohn, Carl Stumpf, Paul Menzer, Georg Lasson and Alois Riehl, among others.
They were all great thinkers at the time. He has also studied other sciences, such as physics, biology, anthropology, history, psychology, chemistry and economics. He received his doctorate in philosophy in 1905 from the University of Berlin.
It was then that he came into contact with psychoanalytic ideas, which immediately got his attention, he did analysis first with Karl Abraham and then with Hans Sachs; psychoanalysis captivated Muller, making him a true follower of Sigmund Freud’s ideas. more focused on bureaucratic activities than psychoanalysis.
As everyone knows, most of the pioneers of psychoanalysis were Jews. With the progressive rise of Nazism, his position was questioned. At the time, psychoanalysis was not yet well known, which only attracted the interest of certain intellectual groups, which corresponded to small sectors of the upper middle class, that is, the number of people interested in protecting psychoanalysis was not very large.
Nazism demanded the dismissal of all Jews in office in scientific entities or organizations. At the time, the most important psychoanalytic organizations were in the cities of Berlin and Vienna. It was then that Carl Muller-Braunschweig took over the German organization, which the Nazis called it the “German Psychoanalytic Society”.
The new institution was in the service of the Nazis, who named it shortly after the 19th century as ‘Goring Institute’ in honor of its founder, Mathias Goring, the cousin of the famous Nazi marshal. Freud’s position was to ask for psychoanalysis to remain in Germany, although his name was not maintained, the Nazis were interested in this current, but they wanted to erase all Jewish footprints.
Carl Muller-Braunschweig’s position was ambiguous. He preserved psychoanalysis, but at the same time adapted to the demands of Nazism; since 1938 he has been mired in a depressive crisis, episodes that were repeated several times throughout his life; in 1946, after the war, he undertook work to reconstruct psychoanalysis in Germany. He visited Ernst Jones and Anna Freud.
Later, John Rickman was hired to visit Germany to evaluate those who were at the forefront of psychoanalysis in that country, his mission was to determine if they were capable of leading the training of new analysts.
In his view, Carl Muller-Braunschweig was incompetent for this mission, he maintained his position in the obvious psychic deterioration he presented, however, it was speculated that this would be retaliation for Muller’s commitment to the Nazis. It’s been some kind of punishment for Muller for taking an ambiguous position.
In 1950 he founded a new psychoanalytic organization that, over time, has been recognized by the international community of psychoanalysts; later, he devoted himself to the private practice of psychoanalysis and his teaching at the University of Berlin. Many of his writings try to justify his collaboration with Nazism. He died in Berlin on 12 October 1958.
To be sure, Carl Muller-Braunschweig’s biography is somewhat obscure and shows how political and international conflicts can influence psychoanalysis. There are situations in history where it is difficult to take a neutral position or make a decision.
As we pointed out at the outset, there are those who believe that, regardless of who is in power, the important thing is to be able to develop and continue to advance research, certainly, at this stage, some ethical and moral issues. Should we present and preserve the investigation?
Is it better to resign or try to fight even if the battle is lost? Research and science must be well above political or economic interests, but sometimes the answer is not so simple.