[Herbert Rosenfeld in Germany: on the seducibility/corruptibility by the idealization of destructive elements then...

In connection with a conference in memory of Herbert Rosenfeld in 2014 in his home town Nuremberg, from which he had to flee in 1935, the author did some research on this outstanding, later British, psychoanalyst in Germany. The first results are presented here. How the first contacts came about remains unclear but a few of his articles were published in German from 1955 and in the 70's he held occasional seminars in Munich. His contacts with colleagues from the DPV at the end of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's (until his death in 1986) seem however to have been the most influential, especially through a supervision group he led. Rosenfeld transmitted a particularly experience-near approach to the patient, which also acknowledged and took seriously (self) destructive elements in the transference and countertransference. In the following years and decades a number of colleagues wished to deepen this approach. How this line was further developed is illustrated in outlining G. Appy's clinical description of intrusive speechlessness. Rosenfeld's ideas on the pernicious effect of idealizing destructive elements are especially stressed as they contributed to thinking about the entanglements with Nazi Germany, and in addition are still useful in analytical practice, out of which they developed.