Dr. Franz Julius Polgar (April 18, 1900 - June 19, 1979) was a renowned

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

hypnotist Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychological ...

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

and

entertainer An entertainer is someone who provides entertainment in various different forms. Types of entertainers

* Acrobat * Actor * Archimime * Barker (occupation), Barker * Beatboxer * Benshi * Bouffon * Cheerleader * Circus arts, Circus perform ...

Family

The son of Julius Polgar, and Risa Kohn (1869-), née Kohn, Franz Polgar was born in city of

Enying Enying () is a town in Fejér county, Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east ...

, in

Fejér County Fejér (, ) is an administrative county in central Hungary. It lies on the west bank of the river Danube and nearly touches the eastern shore of Lake Balaton. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Veszprém, Komárom-Esztergom County ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

on April 18, 1900. He arrived in the United States in 1931, and was naturalized on 7 September 1944. He married Lillian Sheiman (1911-), in New York, on 24 September 24, 1938. They had two children, Julian (b.1945) and Risa Willa (b.1947).

Education

He earned a Ph.D. in

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

from the

University of Budapest A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

Hypnotist

In his 1951 autobiography Polgar claimed that he had served as

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

's "medical hypnotist" (Polgar's term) in 1924 and had worked in close association with Freud for six months and had assisted in the treatment of Freud's patients.Polgar, 1951. In 1982, Gravitz and Gerton investigated this claim and determined that it had no foundation. He honed his hypnotism skills by working in

speakeasy A speakeasy, also called a beer flat or blind pig or blind tiger, was an illicit establishment that sold alcoholic beverages. The term may also refer to a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies. In the United State ...

bars in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. His wife, Lillian, became his booking and publications manager. During the early days of

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

, and soon after an early 1949 appearance at the

Newburgh Free Academy Newburgh Free Academy (NFA) is the public high school educating all students in grades 9– 12 in the Newburgh Enlarged City School District, which serves the city of Newburgh, New York, most of each of the towns of Newburgh and New Windsor, ...

Newburgh, New York Newburgh is a City (New York), city in Orange County, New York, United States. With a population of 28,856 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is a principal city of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh metropolitan area. ...

, in which he claimed to have induced a student, Donald A. Romano, into a trance, Dr. Polgar had a short lived 10-minute show on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

television network called ''The Amazing Polgar'' Most of his entertaining was done in colleges, universities, and resorts. His show consisted of three parts: hypnosis demonstration, a

mentalism Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Mentalists perform a theatrical act that includes special effects that may appear to employ ...

or "mind reading" stunt where he would use Hellstromism to find an object hidden by his audience, and various memory stunts.LM.1.

Notes

References

* Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle F. (2009), ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present'', New York, NY: Random House Publishing Group.
p. 42
* Gravitz, M.A. & Gerton, M.I., "Polgar as Freud's Hypnotist? Contrary Evidence", ''American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis'', Vol.24, No.4, (April 1982), pp. 272–276. * LM.1
He has Hypnotized a Million People, ''Life magazine'', Vol.27, No.4, (July 25, 1949), pp.85-88, 90.
* Polgar, F.J. (with Singer K.), ''The Story of a Hypnotist'', Hermitage House, (New York), 1951. * Schneck, J.M., "Freud's "Medical Hypnotist"", ''American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis'', Vol.19, No.2, (October 1976), pp. 80–81.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Polgar, Franz 1900 births 1979 deaths Hungarian hypnotists Hungarian psychologists Hungarian Jews 20th-century psychologists