Else Frenkel-Brunswik

Else Frenkel-Brunswik (; August 18, 1908 – March 31, 1958) was a Polish-born Austrian psychologist. She was forced to leave Poland and later Austria as a result of anti-Jewish persecution. She is best known for her contributions to The Authoritarian Personality, her collaboration with Theodor W. Adorno, Daniel Levinson, and Nevitt Sanford. It is considered a milestone work in personality theory and social psychology.

Early life in Europe Else Frenkel was born August 18, 1908, in Lemberg, in Austria-Hungary, the second of three daughters of Jewish department store owner Abraham Frenkel and his wife Helene Frenkel. In 1914, her family moved from Galicia to Vienna to escape the pogroms. She went through psychoanalysis with Ernst Kris.

In 1950, she went to the University of Oslo as a visiting lecturer and research consultant. In 1954–1955 she held a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

In 1955, her husband Egon committed suicide after a long illness. This deeply impacted Else' professional and personal life. Although she was unanimously elected to a full professorship in the psychology department at Berkeley, after her husband no longer was employed there, the recognition brought her little comfort. She suffered from severe depression and committed suicide 31 March 1958 by overdose of barbital.

Her biography is included into prestigious Notable American Women collection.

Writings Else Frenkel, Edith Weisskopf: Desire and Duty in the Structure of Human Life. Gerold & Co., Vienna 1937 (Psychological research on the CV. Edited by Charlotte Bühler and Else Frenkel. Volume 1). Else Frenkel-Brunswik: Motivation and Behavior. Genetic Psychology Monographs. Vol. 26, 1942, pp 121–265. Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel J. Levinson, R. Nevitt Sanford: The Authoritarian Personality . New Harper and Brothers, New York the 1950s. Else Frenkel-Brunswik: Selected Papers. Edited by Nanette Heiman and Joan Grant. International Universities Press, New York 1974th Else Frenkel-Brunswik: Studies the Authoritarian Personality. Selected Writings (edited and introduced by Dietmar Paier). Library of social science emigrants. Vol. 3. Nausner and Nausner, Wien 1996. Else Frenkel-Brunswik, R. Nevitt Sanford: "The anti-Semitic personality. A research report". In: Erich Simmel (ed.): Anti-Semitism. Fischer, Frankfurt a.M., 1993, S, 119–147. (An earlier version of the Journal of Psychology, Vol. 20, 1945, pp 271–291). Nathan W. Ackerman, Theodor W. Adorno, Bruno Bettelheim, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Marie Jahoda, Morris Janowitz, Daniel J. Levinson, R. Nevitt Sanford: The Authoritarian Character. Volume 2: Studies on Authority and Prejudice. Amsterdam: De Munter, Amsterdam 1969. Dietmar Paier: "Else Frenkel-Brunswik 1908–1958". Archive for the History of Sociology in Austria. Newsletter (Graz), no. 13, June 1996 pp 9–11. (see )