Karl Abraham - German Psychoanalyst Biography

Karl Abraham (May 3, 1877 – December 25, 1925) was an early German psychoanalyst, and a student and colleague of Sigmund Freud. He made substantial contributions to the world of psychoanalysis. 

 Karl Abraham was born in Bremen, Germany on May 3, 1877, into a well-to-do, highly cultured, and well established Jewish family. 

Abraham became deeply interested in philology and linguistics, and he learned to speak five languages, read several others, and even analyzed and psychoanalyzed some patients in English.

Karl Abraham received his medical degree from the University of Freiburg in 1901 following the standard German preparatory education.

Abraham married his cousin, Hedwig Burgner in 1906 and they had two children; his daughter was the well-known psychoanalyst Hilda Abraham.

Karl's first position was at Burgholzi Mental Hospital in Zurich. He became an assistant to Eugene Bleuler and studied with Carl Jung, who in 1907 introduced him to Sigmund Freud. In that same year, Karl Abraham published his first paper, which began with the phrase "according to Freud." 

 Karl Abraham among all Freud's disciples, never deviated from personal loyalty to Freud or from the classical principles of psychoanalysis.

Abraham was fascinated by the various stages of psychosexual development, suggesting greater differentiation in libido development and postulating the connection between disturbance in psychosexual development and psychosis, which was later worked out by Freud. 

Although Karl remained loyal to Sigmund Freud throughout his life, he left Vienna to found the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute due to disagreement with Carl Jung. This institute proved significant in the expansion of psychoanalysis (1924-1925) not only in Germany, but through his analysands, students, and colleagues there, among whom were included Melanie Klein and Karen Horney, he contributed to the successful expansion of psychoanalysis to Great Britain and the United States. 

Karl Abraham's total literary output was about 700 pages, consisting of four short books and forty-nine papers, all but eight of which dealt with the theory and practice of psychoanalysis.

Karl died on December 25, 1925, in Berlin at the age of 48.