Susanna Rubinstein

Susanna Rubinstein (20 September 1847 – 29 March 1914) was an Austrian psychologist and the first woman to earn a doctorate from the University of Bern in Switzerland.

Biography

Rubinstein was born in Czernowitz (then part of Austrian Empire, now Chernivtsi, Ukraine)

She and her three siblings were greatly encouraged to pursue their education, even though this was a time when girls were often denied that opportunity. (A high school for girls was eventually opened in Czernowitz in 1898 and a girls' grammar school was established only during the years just before the First World War.)

With the completion of her doctorate, Rubinstein spent a year in Germany visiting Leipzig, Heidelberg and Munich.

Her 1878 work "Psychologisch-Asthetische Essays" ("Psychological-Aesthetic Essays") has been described as "a major contribution to the study of human emotions". It was reprinted in 2012 (Nabu Press, ).

Susanna Rubinstein died 29 March 1914 in Würzburg, Germany.

Selected publications

Psychologisch-ästhetische Essays (Heidelberg, 1878) Aus der Innerwelt. Psychologische Studien (Leipzig, 1888) Ein individualistischer Pessimist. Beitrag zur Würdigung Philipp Mainländers. (Leipzig, 1894) Eine Trias von Willensmetaphysikern. Populär-philosophische Essays. (Leipzig, 1896) Schiller-Probleme. (Leipzig, 1908) Lexikalischer Schiller-Kommentar (Berlin, 1913)