Stjepan Betlheim (22 July 1898 – 24 September 1970) was a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

and

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...

Early life and education

Betlheim was born in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family. He studied medicine in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, where he showed interest in psychoanalysis and attended lectures of

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 ...

. He graduated in 1922. Betlheim specialised in

neuropsychiatry Neuropsychiatry is a branch of medicine that deals with psychiatry as it relates to neurology, in an effort to understand and attribute behavior to the interaction of neurobiology and social psychology factors. Within neuropsychiatry, the mind i ...

in Vienna,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. During his specialisation, he published six articles in distinguished Austrian and German neurological or neuropsychiatric journals.

Career and later life

He worked at the Vienna neuropsychiatric clinic headed by

Julius Wagner-Jauregg Julius Wagner-Jauregg (; 7 March 1857 – 27 September 1940) was an Austrian physician, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1927, and is the first psychiatrist to have done so. His Nobel award was "for his discovery of the therape ...

. After the first analysis with

Paul Schilder Paul Ferdinand Schilder (February 15, 1886, Vienna – December 7, 1940, New York City) was an Austrian psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and medical researcher. Schilder's research work in both neurophysiology and neuropathology, coupled with an activ ...

, Betlheim completed his training with

Sandor Rado Sandor Rado ( ; 8 January 1890, Kisvárda – 14 May 1972, New York City) was a Hungarian psychoanalyst of the second generation, who moved to the United States in the 1930s. According to Peter Gay, "Budapest produced some of the most conspicuo ...

. Betlheim's first analyses were supervised by

Karen Horney Karen Horney (; ; ; 16 September 1885 – 4 December 1952) was a German psychoanalyst who practiced in the United States during her later career. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views. This was particularly true of her theories ...

and

Helene Deutsch Helene Deutsch (; ; 9 October 1884 – 29 March 1982) was a Polish-American psychoanalyst and colleague of Sigmund Freud. She founded the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute. In 1935, she immigrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she maintained ...

. He returned to Zagreb in 1928. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, in 1941, the

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...

authorities sent Betlheim, Stjepan Steiner and 80 other Jewish physicians to

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

to treat endemic

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

. He later escaped and joined the

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

. After the war, in 1948, he became an assistant at the Neurologic-psychiatric Clinic of the

School of Medicine, University of Zagreb The School of Medicine ( or MEF) in Zagreb is a Croatian medical school affiliated with the University of Zagreb. It is the oldest and biggest of the four medical schools in Croatia (the other three being in Osijek, Rijeka and Split), having bee ...

, where he introduced the psychoanalytical dimension into the understanding of mental illness. He became a member of the

International Psychoanalytical Association The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) is an association including 12,000 psychoanalysts as members and works with 70 constituent organizations. It was founded in 1910 by Sigmund Freud, from an idea proposed by Sándor Ferenczi. His ...

in 1952. Betlheim further developed the group therapy for sexual disorders. In 1953 Betlheim founded the ambulatory psychotherapeutic ward, the first in Croatia, at the neurologic-psychiatric Clinic of the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb and neuropsychiatric clinic at the

University Hospital Centre Zagreb The University Hospital Centre (sometimes also Clinical Hospital Centre, ) in Zagreb, Croatia, is the largest hospital in Croatia and the teaching hospital of the University of Zagreb. It serves most of Central and Northern Croatia for specialist a ...

. Parallel to his therapeutic work, Betlheim was also a prolific scientist and teacher.

Personal life and death

Betlheim was married to Marie Luise (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Morgenroth) with whom he had a daughter named Ruth. Until his death Betlheim treated patients, taught and did scientific research. He was buried at the

Mirogoj Cemetery The Mirogoj City Cemetery (, ), also known as Mirogoj Cemetery (), is a cemetery park that is considered to be among the more noteworthy landmarks in the city of Zagreb. The cemetery inters members of all religious groups: Catholic, Orthodox, M ...

Honors

In 1998

Croatian Post Croatian may refer to: *Croatia *Croatian language *Croatian people *Croatians (demonym) See also * * * Croatan (disambiguation) * Croatia (disambiguation) * Croatoan (disambiguation) * Hrvatski (disambiguation) * Hrvatsko (disambiguation) * Se ...

issued a stamp to honor him. A bust of Prof. Dr. Stjepan Betlheim is placed in front of the University Hospital Centre Zagreb. His daughter wrote a book about the life of her father, which was issued and presented in 2006 at the Jewish community in Zagreb.

Works

* ''Psihijatrija'', 1959 * ''Neuroze i njihovo lečenje'', 1963 * ''O govornim omaškama u Korsakovljevoj psihozi'', 1989 * ''Snovi u psihoterapiji'', 1993 * ''Radovi, pisma, dokumenti : 1898–1970'', 2006

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Betlheim, Stjepan 1898 births 1970 deaths Physicians from Zagreb Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery Croatian Jews Jews from Austria-Hungary Croatian Austro-Hungarians Croatian psychiatrists Jewish physicians Yugoslav Partisans members Croatian people of World War II Yugoslav physicians Yugoslav psychologists