Jacobson, Edith (1897-1978)
source:International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis
Edith Jacobson, psychoanalyst and physician, was born September 10, 1897 in
Haynau, Germany and died December 8, 1978 in Rochester, New York.
Edith Jacobson's father was a physician and her mother was a talented musician.
She attended medical school at Jena, Heidelberg, and Munich, and received her
medical degree from Munich in 1922. From 1922 to 1925 she was a pediatric intern
at the University Hospital in Heidelberg.
Jacobson traced her interest in psychoanalysis to the period of her pediatrics
internship, during which she observed instances of childhood sexuality (Milrod,
1971). In 1925 she began training at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, where
her analyst was Otto Fenichel. During these years she also participated in "Das
Kinder Seminar," which was formed by candidates at the Berlin Institute and led
by Fenichel (the name is an ironic reference to the junior status of its
organizers, not to its substantive focus).