Barag, Dr. Gerda Born in Berlin 1909 Immigrated to Palestine 1935 Died in Tel Aviv 1981

Treasurer of the IPS 1965-1975

Description: Anchor International Review of Psycho-Analysis,(1982), 9:103-103 Gerda Barag (1909–1981) A. Kon On 26 August 1981, Dr Gerda Barag died after a short illness. She is survived by her son, a professor of archaeology and her daughter, a psychiatrist. Dr Barag was one of the veteran psychoanalysts in Israel, a didactic person, treasurer of the Association for 20 years, a member of the international Israeli Society. She taught at the Israel Psychoanalytic Institute for many years and at the School of Psychiatry of the Tel Aviv University. Dr Barag was born in Berlin on 11 August 1909, the daughter of a doctor. She was a member of the Zionist movement from the days of her youth. She completed her medical studies in Berlin, but with the rise of the Nazi régime in Germany, she was unable to take her qualifying examinations. After residing in Switzerland, she returned to take her exams and in 1938, she received her doctorate. In that year she and her husband Dr Gershon Barag (psychiatrist–psychoanalyst) immigrated toIsrael, where she completed her post graduate studies in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. She was among the first members of the Association. The members met in her home for business and social reasons. It can be said that Dr Barag was one of the mainstays of the Association, who worked for its progress and advancement. She fulfilled this function with devotion and love until her last days. The period of her immigration was a pioneering one. The Israeli society saw itself as a pioneering society, emphasizing construction, reclamation of swamps, planting of the desert, and building of a Socialist society. The stress at that time was on manual labour and building in the literal meaning of the word. This society paid little attention to emotional problems, emotional processes, their significance and their implications for the individual and for the society. Work in the fields was the only kind of work respected and cherished by the Israeli society of the time. Dr Barag had a pioneering spirit and she fought to gain a position for new values and concepts in that same pioneering spirit. The struggle to gain acceptance for the importance of analytic treatment, analytic thought and the recognition of intrapsychic processes was a great pioneering feat. In this way was Dr Barag a part of the spirit of the time, pioneering to introduce new values against great opposition. She won the battle. She created a whole generation of students and friends who have followed in her footsteps and the analytic concept has taken its proper place. Her sense of humour, her logic, and her enormous clinical knowledge provided her with a large circle of friends who were closely attached to her. She had the rare talent of being able to speak out directly with no embellishments, without injuring the narcissistic feelings of the other party. She showed human concern for her patients and her friends, and became a trusted friend of many. Her love of life, her interests in many and varied fields, and her image as a person and as an analyst became a model for identification to many of her students. Few people are able to give as much to so many as did Dr Barag. – Indikationen und Ergebnisse der Splenektomie in der Charité-Berlin in den Jahren 1928-1933. Med. Diss. Berlin 1935 – Clinical notes on kleptomania. Samiksha 7 (3), 1953, 203-215 Barag, G. (1949). A Case of Pathological Jealousy. Psychoanal Q., 18:1-18. […] – Spätreaktionen der aus Konzentrationslagern Befreiten [Hebräisch]. Harefuah 50, 1956, 228-229

(und Ruth Jaffe) Obituary: Professor Moshe Woolf (1878-1971). Israel Annals of Psychiatry and Related Disciplines 10, 1971, 106-107 LINKS – Kloocke, Ruth: Mosche Wulff. Zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse in Rußland und Israel. Tübingen 2002

– Kon, A.: Gerda Barag (1909-1981). Int Rev Psycho-Anal 9, 1982, 103

– Gampel, Yolanda: Israël. In Dictionnaire international de la psychanalyse (2002). Hg. von A. de Mijolla. Paris 2005, 893-895 International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (28.5.2015)]

– Zalashik, Rakefet: Das unselige Erbe. Die Geschichte der Psychiatrie in Palästina und Israel. Frankfurt/M. 2012