Person

Karl Abraham

1877–1925

Founder of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Society; analyst of Melanie Klein and Karen Horney.

Influence

1910 analysed Karen Horney
Horney began analysis with Abraham in Berlin in 1910, while still a medical student and young wife.
1924 analysed Melanie Klein

1924 disputed with Otto Rank
Karl Abraham led the opposition within Freud's inner circle to Rank's Das Trauma der Geburt and to the book Rank wrote with Ferenczi in 1924.
disputed with Ronald Fairbairn
In the 1941 paper Fairbairn criticised Abraham's scheme of libidinal phases and replaced it with stages defined by the quality of dependence on objects.

Karl Abraham among the participants of the International Psychoanalytic Congress at Weimar, photographed by Franz Vältl, 21 September 1911 Image credit: Franz Vältl, 1911Public domainWikimedia Commons
The “Committee” in 1922: seated, Sigmund Freud, Sándor Ferenczi and Hanns Sachs; standing, Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Max Eitingon and Ernest Jones; photographed by the Becker & Maass studio (Marie Boehm), Berlin Image credit: Marie Boehm (Becker & Maass studio, Berlin), 1922Public domainWikimedia Commons