Hermine Hug-Hellmuth
Hermine Hug-Hellmuth (born Hermine Hug Edle von Hugenstein) was born in Vienna on 31st August 1871. Her father, Hugo Hug von Hugenstein, served in the Austrian war ministry both as a military officer (rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel) and as a civilian. Hugenstein also had an illegitimate daughter, Antonia Farmer (later known as Antonia Hug). (1)
After the death of her mother, Ludovika, in 1883, who had served as her tutor, Hermine entered public school and eventually trained to become a teacher. She taught in public and private schools before entering the University of Vienna in 1897, where she studied the physical sciences. In 1904, she obtained a Doctorate of Philosophy. (2)
While a patient of the Viennese analyst Isidor Sadger, Hug-Hellmuth became interested in psychoanalysis. In 1910, she resigned her teaching post and joined Vienna Psychoanalytical Society. Her half-sister, Antonia gave birth to an illegitimate son, Rudolf Otto Hug in 1906. As he was the only child in her family circle, Rudolf, was studied in some detail and became the main subject of her professional research. (3)
In 1913 Hermine Hug-Hellmuth published The Nature of the Child's Soul (1913). Sigmund Freud became aware of this research and gave details of how it was being used by his daughter in a letter to Karl Abraham. "My grandson is a charming little fellow who manages to laugh so engagingly whenever one pays attention to him; he is a decent, civilised being, which is doubly valuable in these times of unleashed brutality. Strict upbringing by an intelligent mother enlightened by Hug-Hellmuth has done him a great deal of good." (4)
Antonia died of tuberculosis on 2nd February 1915. After this date Rudolf had a series of guardians: "When he was older he was placed in a number of re-education centres. The delinquent nature of his personality was noted by his three guardians, but none of the therapeutic or re-educational measures was successful." (5)
Hermine Hug-Hellmuth published A Young Girl's Diary in 1919. Joseph Friedjung wrote: "For the psychoanalytic school it was a valuable, human document. For her enemies it was the subject of malicious assault and nasty suspicions. She acknowledged in a moving manner the deplorable opposition to the growing importance of psychoanalytic insights for education. Our scientific movement has much to thank her for. Her work will be a valuable source of psychoanalytic literature in the future." (6)
At the International Congress in The Hague in 1920, she reported on her early efforts in her paper On the Technique of the Analysis of Children. Her work was based on observation and analysis of children's behavior and on the possibility of applying psychoanalytic theory to education and the psychology of children. This included analysing her nephew, Rolf Hug. The illegitimate child of her half-sister Antoine, he had been raised by Hug-Hellmuth since the death of his mother. (7)
Rudolf von Urbantschitsch was very complimentary about her research: "Her work combines a great wealth of knowledge and observations on which a modern practice of child education can be built. But beyond her knowledge, the author shows kind-hearted qualities which underline each and every line of her books and which embellish and warm each world." (8)
Melanie Klein went to meet Hug-Hellmuth but did not find her very helpful, possibly because she found her a threat. "Dr. Hug-Hellmuth was doing child analysis at this time in Vienna, but in a very restricted way. She completely avoided interpretations, though she used some play material and drawings, and I could never get an impression of what she was actually doing, nor was she analysing children under six or seven years." (9)
Hug-Hellmuth actually warned against analysis for children if it touched their deepest feelings. She suggested that it is dangerous to uncover too many of children's negative and aggressive feelings towards their parents. Hug-Hellmuth was not only afraid of alienating parents by exposing to children their aggression towards their parents, but she also wanted the children to have good and friendly feelings towards themselves. (10)
On the night of 8th September, 1924, Hermine Hug-Hellmuth was murdered by her eighteen-year-old nephew, Rudolf Otto Hug. According to Hug, his aunt's writings contained many observations of him and he testified at his trial that she had attempted to psychoanalyze him. After his trial he was sentenced to twelve years in prison. (11)
The Das Unterhaltungsblatt reported: "Over and above the people concerned, this crime takes on a different significance. It shows just how dangerous psychoanalysis can be when it purports to be more than a scientific theory or a therapeutic treatment, when it tries to interfere with culture, education or children. At the same time this murder is a demonstration of the argument that we, the critics of psychoanalysis, have constantly put forward - unfortunately in vain: the early manifestations of sexual behaviour alleged by psychoanalysis are in fact a psychological disorder and have nothing to do with ordinary child psychology. What Dr. Hug-Hellmuth calls 'Child Psychology' is in fact mostly about a 'nephew' psychology." (12)
This murder had a tremendous impact on the psychoanalytic movement. Members of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute became increasingly critical of Melanie Klein, who was seen as a pioneer of child psychology. They accused her of being "feeble-minded about theory" and her "nursery talk embarrassing and ridiculous". Some of the members suggested that "child analysis was positively dangerous". (13)
The murder of Hermine Hug-Hellmuth and its attendant publicity was very damaging to the early child psychology movement. After being released from prison, Rudolf Otto Hug attempted to get compensation from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association because he had been "used systematically by his aunt as raw material for her work. He told Paul Federn he was a victim of psychoanalysis. (14)
Primary Sources
(1) Sigmund Freud, letter to Karl Abraham (22nd September 1914)
My grandson is a charming little fellow who manages to laugh so engagingly whenever one pays attention to him; he is a decent, civilised being, which is doubly valuable in these times of unleashed brutality. Strict upbringing by an intelligent mother enlightened by Hug-Hellmuth has done him a great deal of good.
(2) Das Unterhaltungsblatt (20th March, 1925)
Over and above the people concerned, this crime takes on a different significance. It shows just how dangerous psychoanalysis can be when it purports to be more than a scientific theory or a therapeutic treatment, when it tries to interfere with culture, education or children. At the same time this murder is a demonstration of the argument that we, the critics of psychoanalysis, have constantly put forward - unfortunately in vain: the early manifestations of sexual behaviour alleged by psychoanalysis are in fact a psychological disorder and have nothing to do with ordinary child psychology. What Dr. Hug-Hellmuth calls 'Child Psychology' is in fact mostly about a 'nephew' psychology.
