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An Austrian [[philosopher ]] and [[psychoanalyst]], Siegfried Bernfeld was [[born ]] March 7, 1892, in Lemberg, the [[capital ]] city of Galicia, and died April 2, 1953, in San Francisco. Bernfeld distinguished himself in the extent of his [[knowledge]], the originality of his [[ideas]], and his qualities as an educator. A prolific and exacting writer, he was also an outstanding teacher, admired by his students and respected by his colleagues. [[Freud ]] said he considered him the most gifted of his students and disciples.His [[parents ]] lived in [[Vienna ]] but his [[mother ]] returned to her hometown to give [[birth ]] to her first [[child]]. In 1910 Bernfeld completed his studies at the Gymnasium and entered the [[University ]] of Vienna, where he obtained a Ph.D. in [[philosophy]], while also studying [[psychoanalysis]], [[sociology]], education, and [[biology]]. All branches of knowledge held an interest

for Bernfeld, who was also involved in contemporary [[political ]] issues. A lucid and passionate [[left]]-wing Zionist, he was [[active ]] in political struggles while he was a university student.Impregnated with the ideas of psychoanalysis and [[Marxism]], Bernfeld founded, in 1919, the Kinderheim Baumgarten, where nearly [[three ]] hundred [[Jewish ]] [[children]], refugees from [[Poland]], were housed. His first book, published in 1921, examined this short, intense period of his [[life]].In 1925 he published two important works on [[infant ]] [[psychology ]] and education. <i>[[Psychologie ]] des Säuglings</i> (Infant Psychology) is a well-known [[work ]] that makes use of psychoanalysis and [[drive ]] [[theory ]] to develop a new psychology of the infant. <i>Sisyphos</i> is a critique of the idealist [[notion ]] of education and comes down strongly in favor of a non-authoritarian [[system]], one that respects the life of the [[instincts ]] and the [[needs ]] of the student.Attracted by the fame of Max Eitingon's institute, Bernfeld traveled to Berlin in 1926. There he underwent [[analysis ]] with Hanns Sachs and rapidly won the admiration of his students. While there he studied the [[scientific ]] foundations of psychoanalysis and, returning to his first [[love]], biology, researched the theory of instincts. At the end of his Berlin period, he contrasted his [[position ]] (as a [[Freudian ]] and [[Marxist]]) with that of Wilhelm [[Reich ]] in two important articles, and wrote an essay on [[interpretation]].In <i>Der Begriff der "Deutung" in der Psychoanalyse</i> (The [[Concept ]] of "Interpretation" in Psychoanalysis), Bernfeld described the concept of interpretation with the tools of the scientific method, something he shared with Moritz Schlick and [[Hans ]] Reichenbach. He distinguished several types of interpretation. "Final" interpretation attempts to penetrate the [[unconscious ]] intentional context in which a determinate [[psychic ]] production that appears to be isolated from any context can be situated. "Functional" interpretation takes account of the [[value ]] of a specific psychic fact. "Reconstruction," an [[instrument ]] of [[psychoanalytic ]] [[science]], concretely reconstructs an old psychic [[process]]. Because there is a consistent relation between the psychic [[event ]] and its traces, reconstruction can discover the genetic connection that is continuously repeated through impulse and [[desire]]. In this way psychoanalysis is raised to the rank of a [[natural ]] science to the extent that it provides an explanation for personal psychic events on the basis of certain laws.The approach to psychoanalysis as a science of traces is based on the leading theories of the field: free [[association]], [[transference ]] and [[resistance]], which inhibits the [[formation ]] of [[missing ]] unconscious connections (Bernfeld returns to this [[subject ]] in 1941 in <i>The Fact of Observation in Psychoanalysis</i>, a work that exercised considerable influence on his disciples in California, especially Edward M. Weinshel).With the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the imminent ascent of [[Hitler ]] to [[power]], Bernfeld realized that he could no longer remain in [[Germany]]. He left Berlin and, after a brief stay in Vienna, went into exile in [[France ]] in 1932.Little is known [[about ]] Bernfeld's life in France. Apparently, he was not well received by the [[Paris ]] Psychoanalytic [[Society]]. He settled in the south of France, where he met Suzanne Cassirer-Paret, who became his [[third ]] wife and an important collaborator. In 1936 Siegfried and Suzanne decided to leave France and, in answer to Otto Fenichel and Ernst Simmel's invitation, emigrated to California in 1937. In San Francisco Bernfeld resumed his teaching activities and wrote, together with his wife, a series of articles that can be considered the point of departure for "Freudology." These include a documented study on the Helmholz [[School ]] (1944) and a 1946 essay in which Bernfeld discovers that the enigmatic [[character ]] in "[[Screen ]] [[Memories]]" ([[Freud, S.]], 1899) is no [[other ]] than [[Sigmund Freud ]] himself. There followed several articles on Freud's early scientific work, his studies on [[cocaine]], and, together with his wife, an article on the [[childhood ]] of the founding [[father ]] of psychoanalysis and his first years in [[practice]]. Bernfeld died in 1953 while he and his wife were preparing other articles on Freud's life.

# [[Bernfeld, Siegfried]]. (1921). Kinderheim Baumgarten. Bericht über einen ernsthaften Versuch mit neuer Erziehung. Berlín: Jüdischer Verlag.

# ——. (1932). Der Begriff der "Deutung" in der [[Psycho]]-[[analyse]]. Zeitschrift für angewandte Psychologie, 4, 448-497.# Ekstein, Rudolph. ([[1968]]). In Fr. Alexander, S. Eisenstein, M. Grotjahn (Eds.), Psychoanalytic pioneers. New York, [[London]]: Basic Books.