Educated in medicine at Wurzburg, Berlin and Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Abraham then began his training in psychiatry in Berlin. He then went to Zurich where he continued his studies under Eugen Bleuler. It was at this time that he first met Carl Jung, who was physician-in-chief, who introduced him to Freud's work. Abraham began his own psychiatric practice in Berlin in 1907 and in 1910 founded the Berlin Institute of Psychoanalysis. During the First World War, he served as the chief physician in a psychiatric unit. After the war, he was elected president of the International Psychoanalytic Association, a position he would hold until his untimely death from cancer in 1925. Abraham became good friends with Freud and much of his work expanded on Freud's theories, such as his A Short Study of the Development of the Libido (1924). During his years in practice, Abraham was the analyst and mentor of many future names in the field including Helene Deutsch, Karen Horney, Felix Boehm and Melanie Klein. In addition to numerous clinical papers and articles, Abraham's works include Psychosexual Differences Between Hysteria and Dementia Praecox (1908) and Dreams and Myths (1909). |
